You Should Rethink Flying United Airlines

Townhall ^ | Jan 30, 2024 | Dennis Prager

[george76]

2021, United Airlines released the following statement:

"Our flight deck should reflect the diverse group of people on board our planes every day. That's why we plan for 50% of the 5,000 pilots we train in the next decade to be women or people of color."

In the past few weeks, a 2021 interview with United CEO Scott Kirby, in which he promoted United's pilot-training policies, went viral.

The bottom line is clear: It will no longer be merit alone that determines who half of United's pilots-in-training will be; it will be race and sex (or "gender," as the Left prefers to call it). Despite the New York Times and the rest of the Left defending United, there is no other honest conclusion to draw.

As one who flies about 100 times a year, often on United, this worries me. Until now, I rarely worried about safety issues. I have certainly never feared flying.

But this is troubling enough that, although I will probably have flown a million miles on United by the end of 2024 and I am at the second-highest level available to United Airlines flyers (Premier Platinum), I will now do my best to avoid flying United. I am also giving up my United Visa card.

And I am asking all Americans who have a choice in airlines and a choice in credit cards to do the same. If you don't fight this battle, you have no right to complain about the demise of our society, let alone of United or any other airline adopting similar policies. You have an opportunity to make a difference. United may be willing to compromise about safety, but it isn't willing to compromise about its bottom line.

...

United is a particularly woke company. As one left-wing observer of the airline industry and defender of United, Gary Leff, writing on viewfromthewing.com, put it: "United was out way ahead of the Biden administration with vaccine mandates. This angered many pilots."

It is important for me to note that until now I could not care less if my pilot was black, white, male or female. I have flown on planes with black pilots and female pilots, and I slept equally well on board. Those of us who oppose United's affirmative action do not do so for race- or sex-based reasons. To cite a medical example, people of every color sought Dr. Ben Carson if they needed one of the country's best neurosurgeons for their child. But if people know that a hospital was hiring surgeons using affirmative action criteria, they might well think twice before undergoing surgery with a minority surgeon.

Here's a good test of whether opposition to United's affirmative action for pilots is racist or not: Ask a black friend or colleague if he or she would prefer a pilot (or surgeon) who was chosen on merit alone or by also using affirmative action criteria.

We already know that colleges engaged in affirmative action have not helped black students succeed. Why should it work in the cockpit? Would anyone respect the decision of an NBA team to diversify its players by using affirmative action to hire more white players?

The woke DEI notion of companies, physicians and cockpits having to "look like" the rest of the population is as absurd as it is dangerous. In fact, I can think of no area of life where this matters to anyone who is not on the Left.

How, exactly, have all the black mayors, congressmen, and even a black president, helped blacks in any way? Has the virtual absence of Indian American, Taiwanese American, Filipino American or Pakistani American mayors, congressmen -- or pilots, for that matter -- hurt any members of these groups in any way? Those four groups are the top-earning ethnic groups in America (Census Bureau, 2021).

The notion that the cockpit or the mayor's office has to look like the rest of the population is just foolish -- as foolish as the idea that professional athletes have to look like the rest of the population. It is an idea, like most stupid ideas, that appeals primarily to college graduates.

[drSteve78]

Men frequently are task oriented, single focused, so that flying the plane, with all of its intricacies becomes Job One. Many women complain that men can/will do only one thing at a time, in order, single file. For flying, there are no shortcuts or do overs.
Have yet to meet a woman that doesn’t routinely multitask ALL OF THE TIME. Many of them brag about it. It’s a reason women think that they can text while driving a car. “Wasn’t an accident so far.”
Compound that with Less than stellar common sense among any diverse candidates, chaos and disaster in any color. If someone has primary focus on race, color, genders, then the focus isn’t on doing the job right.
My brother likes to remind that every plane lands eventually, just varies where and how hard. Gravity always wins.
FYI, i met Terri Jones. She can fly me anywhere. Exception to the rule?

[rlmorel]

I often post this graph I created, because it explains why I don't believe females should be assigned to combat duties:

This graph is meant to convey the concept, not the actual mapped data which I cannot say has been done. But the underlying concepts regarding bone and muscle structure, upper-body strength, etc. are facts accepted by the medical community. Or, at least, were before wokeness became the overriding concern.

People say it is disrespectful and misogynistic to post things like this, but it is the truth.

This woman, who as a US Marine, wrote this excellent article which is worth reading, and baldly states the facts:

LINK TO PDF: Women in Combat: The Question of Standards (by Jude Eden)

[rlmorel]

LOL, no kidding. I am surprised that is still a valid statement, but athletics are big bucks, and we don’t want to risk that.

But letting people into areas of expertise on the basis of their skin color or sex, where they could cause the loss of life, such as a combat situation? Well, blood is not worth as much as athletics, that’s for sure.

As a society, we have already decided that DEI and affirmative action is more important than people’s lives, so women who cannot do a fireman carry of a 250 pound person have had the standards lowered so they can be put into that position, so that has to be endured, and hope you aren’t the 250 person who needs carrying.

[Regulator]

“That’s why we plan for 50% of the 5,000 pilots we train in the next decade to be women or people of color”

Why not make it 100%?

Billions of people on Planet Erf who can be trained to fly. It’s a rote skill, less demanding then a lotta technician jobs.

No reason to have ANY White males up front. And if the 14th Amendment says that ANYONE on the planet is an “American” as is alleged, then why wait? Just fire all the Whiteys.

Isn’t that why our ancestors started a country? To disemprivilege ourselves and our posterity? The Constitution is a suicide pact! Off yerself now and make way for the Nigerian pilots of the future!

[Chickensoup]

Private airlines are expanding dramatically

[khelus]

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/faas-new-dei-hiring-quota-troubling

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

I did that years ago when they needed to get a flight crew from one airport to another about five hours away by car and their solution, rather then "rent a limo" was to delay the flight at the gate for two hours and then forcibly remove already seated passengers from the plane.

I figured if they were that stupid that I did not trust them to maintain their planes properly either despite the assurances of other FReepers that the mechanics were "Union" and so never would let a mechanically unsound plane fly.

[FreedomPoster]

Re: Terri Jones

Individual outliers on various bell curves do not invalidate the information and truth conveyed by those bell curves.

[crusty old prospector]

My dad used to fly for Braniff. Those were the days.

[mass55th]

I haven’t been on a plane since 2006, and thankfully, will never have to fly anywhere, ever again.

[dvan]

And when an emergency occurs? DEI? or qualifications, and experience ?

[drSteve78]

Truth. Thank you.

[Gritty]

DEI obviously trumps everything else.

That's a great way to increase the likelihood of actual "die" happening.

[2001convSVT]

“It will no longer be merit alone that determines who half of United’s pilots-in-training will be”

Merit is the only thing that should determine who is flying the plane!