What you really need to be afraid of when you get in an airplane (Affirmative Action Airways)

American Thinker ^ | Willie Shields

[RoosterRedux]

I have a friend who is fearful of commercial airlines.

At the gate, before boarding, he asks the agent the following question: "What is the captain's name?" If the answer indicates the pilot is female, he will not board that flight. Any criticism of my friend's lack of confidence in any qualified aviatrix is answered along these lines: "She can't drive a stick shift. I should trust her with a Jumbo Jet?"

My friend is right to be cautious about flying, but for different reasons. Like most air travelers, he doesn't know what he doesn't know.

After a career of being closely associated with the air traffic control system, I can confidently opine that female pilots should be near the bottom on anyone's list of safety concerns. Closer to the top of that list? Affirmative action.

Affirmative action has eroded the efficacy of the air traffic control system to an alarming degree. The air traffic controllers' strike in the summer of 1981 was a crisis that the social engineers did not let go to waste. They replaced the PATCO workforce with many of the liberal left's favorites. Let's just say their favorites do not include straight, white, competent, experienced males. However, some level of competence still must be added to the mix; the nature of air traffic control demands it. When flying tubes of flesh and jet fuel are hurtling hither and yon at breakneck speeds, someone has to break the ties. We can't have controllers doing a "bang-up" job.

[Red Badger]

[Prole]

We are truly living in Clown World. It is a sick and backwards place, where clueless losers and Idiots are empowered into very important and powerful professions regardless of their inherent incompetence, incapabilities, and low IQ scores.

Meanwhile, people who are capable of great performance and distinguished skills are asked to leave the building when it comes to opportunities to explore and apply their talents.

It’s truly disgusting, and I see it every single flipping day.

[lgjhn23]

“....It is a sick and backwards place....”

Liberalism is truly a chronic, no-cure mental disease that will eventually get everyone killed if not checked.
Around these parts, we call em; “the walking democrats”. Useless, dangerous and stupid. Others just call em low-IQ, low-information types.

[Born to Conserve]

Back in the 80s, my mother went on a tour of Greece with a large group. On the return leg from Athens to Paris, every time the plane hit turbulence, or the lights went out, or they encountered “head winds”, the captain would come on the intercom to terrify the passengers in broken frenchie English. By the time they got to Paris, half of them had sworn they would never fly to Europe again. So then they boarded their connection from Paris to New York. After takeoff, as they climbed to altitude, the captain came on to introduce himself in native Texican. The entire plane broke into cheers and smiles.

[Wuli]

Yes, a possible case of stupid air traffic controllers.

HOWEVER:

One anecdotal event does not a case make, and just as importantly, the claim of the author is “affirmative action” yet the reporting of the one anecdotal event does not identify the air traffic controllers involved.

Was the author’s one anecdotal event really the result of “affirmative action” or was it a case (a) dead tired overworked controllers?, or (b) controller(s) working under the influence of drugs or alcohol?, or (c) some other condition unrelated to “affirmative action”. We’ll never know. At least not from the author of the article.

[Bogey78O]

We are lucky that a massive accident hasn’t happened yet.

[VanShuyten]

I’m surprised the author didn’t mention the fact that under Obama, whites who were trained at real flight controllers’ schools were bypassed for minorities who had no such education.