Pilot Error?

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Two six six sixty eight sixty eight is the number
Bob in New Hampshire. Thanks for holding Bob, and welcome.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Curoner.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Hi, how are you.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm very good. How are you, Bob?

Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm doing well. Thank you. I'm a first time caller
with a longtime listener. Welcome and thank you. Thank you.
Just a little background on myself. I'm a thirty five
year Army officer, a black Hawk pilot for thirty years,
and also the commander of the Fort Belvoir unit that

(00:36):
had the crash. And that commander Okay, now it's dated,
uh it was twenty years ago, but I was still
as the commander of that unit, and I have flown
that route multiple times, hundreds of times, day and night,
and it's it's a very difficult flight. And there are

(01:00):
a number of factors, I think, and I don't want to,
you know, armchair this thing on why it happened or
what happened, and I'm sure that everything will come out
on it. It's too early to tell, but I think
it was a combination of both the pilots and the
black Hawk and also the air traffic control, so it's
not just one side. What do they have to look

(01:23):
at well. First off, what was the altitude of the
black Hawk? The altitude that you're supposed to fly that
route is two hundred feet and no higher than that.
And the reason why is because of the approaching aircraft,
because they do come in at different angles. There's three
approaches there, so you the Blackhawks would go underneath the
actual landing traffic, so they try to keep that separation

(01:47):
with that two hundred feet. So where they above that altitude,
I don't know, and the air traffic controlers would be
able to see that on their scope. The city lights
in the background, so at night, when flying in the city,
you can't distinguish between city lights and aircraft lights in
the air. If you're at the same level, it's almost

(02:10):
impossible because you've got so many lights in the background.
So even if they're moving, you can't see them. It's
just they get washed out by the city lights. Another
factor is the crew could have been potentially on night
vision goggles. My understanding is that the crew was out

(02:33):
on a training flight. Well the training flight was it
was an annual evaluation from my understanding, so every year
a pilot gets evaluated, and so that was an evaluation flight.
So one of those parts that he gets evaluated on
is night vision goggle flights, and so potentially the crew
was under night vision goggles. I don't know that, but

(02:53):
there is a potential that they were, and if that's
the case, it even adds that much more to the
washout in the background from the scene.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
Bob, this is I'm very happy you mentioned that because
I was going to ask you about that. A lot
of people have been texting the cooner man emailing me saying, Jeff,
you know the night vision goggles. They probably played some
kind of a role in this. What is it about
having night vision goggles if you're in a black Hawk?

(03:21):
Is it what you can't see as well because of
the lights? Do the lights blind you a little bit? Why?
Why is that an issue? I'm just curious, Bob.

Speaker 3 (03:31):
Well, night vision goggles. When I started flying as a
young lieutenant, we were one of the first guys to
get night vision qualified. And the example they used to
use during that training was put two toll paper tubes
up against your eyes and look through them. What do
you see? You know, you have a very limited field

(03:55):
of view through those toolt paper tubes, and so that's
what's happening in night vision goggles, the limit you have
a very limited peripheral vision, so you've got to keep
your head constantly scanning to see where you're at, what's
going on, and so.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
Okay, So maybe that that inhibited them from seeing the
plane as it was on a glide path.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Correct potentially, Again, were they did they have them on?
When I flew in DC, we had them on a
helmet and we would flip them up, flip them down.
You could do it over like a one second period.
And so I personally didn't fly with them on in
the city. Outside the city I did, but inside the

(04:37):
city I would not because the city lights would sort
of kind of amplify that the lights inside the goggle.
So you you wanted to use this rigular, you know, vision,
but I don't. I don't know if they're getting evaluated.
Maybe they were, maybe they weren't, but that could have
been a factor. The other thing was which I I

(05:00):
asked several friends of mine that were also there, and
I said, do you ever remember aircraft taking off and
the landing opposing each other? And I don't remember that.
But when you watch the video, you have an aircraft
taking off towards the landing aircraft, and so when the
when the air traffic controller asked the pilot, which is common,

(05:23):
it's it's they do it all the time. Do you
have contact visual contact? And you say, Roger, visual contact.
That relieves the responsibility the air traffic controller to the pilot.
And so at that point the pilot assumes separation responsibility.
Now the question becomes which aircraft or what did he see?

(05:43):
Did he see did he see the taking off aircraft?
Which I think he did because you got these bright
lights from the landing lights of the aircraft, and they
can see that it was out the right door versus
the aircraft landing was at the same altitude or close
to the same altitude, and they're washed out any lights

(06:06):
of it. You don't see the landing lights. You see
nothing that may be a position light, and that's being
washed out by the background of the city. So I
think the pilots acknowledged that they had the aircraft, but
it was the aircraft that was taking off.

Speaker 1 (06:20):
I agree, Bob, I completely agree. I mean, look, we'll
have to wait for the final report, you know, and
all the evidence, but I what you just laid out,
by the way so articulately and so simply and so
clearly from obviously your vast impressive experience. I think you
put the picture together beautifully. I think that's pretty much

(06:42):
exactly what happened. So when they said, you know, I
have visual, I have visual. So air traffic controller says, okay,
they're good, but he was looking at the wrong plane.
Six one seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight
is the number. Okay, we've got several lines open. Uh so,
if you want to weigh in, now's your chance. Six

(07:03):
one seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight is
the number. I'd like to take as many calls as possible.
I want to ask all of you, just generally, how
do you feel about air travel in general? Are you
nervous when you fly? Do you feel that there's just

(07:24):
too much congestion air traffic to begin with? In the
air in the skies. Do you have confidence in pilots?
Do you have confidence inner traffic controllers? Do you find
it a pleasant experience to fly? I've got to tell you,
ever since nine to eleven, frankly, so this is the

(07:44):
word le'll be talking about twenty four years, I don't
like to fly, and if I can avoid flying, I
will not so much because I'm you know, concerned about
the pilots or the air traffic controllers. Although after what
I saw on the FAA website, you know, now well
Trump is fixing it. But you know, I definitely wouldn't

(08:07):
have flown the last four years had I known that
this was their aggressive diversity hiring program. So but you know,
but let that go. As I like to say, I
don't like the long lines. I don't like the way
you're treated by the airlines. I the the congestion, the lot.

(08:30):
I mean, travel used to be fun. It used to
be comfortable. I used to enjoy looking forward to flying.
It used to be a real treat to fly. Now
you're lucky if you get a bag of pretzels and
you know, a cup of water. The seats are small.
You feel like you're flying in a sardine can. Frankly,
many of the flight attendants, not all, there's some excellent ones,

(08:52):
but many of the flight attendants are I mean, they're
you know, they're rude, they're nasty there you know, they're
I mean, you know, and a lot of the passengers
are oftentimes rude and inconsiderate. It's just not a fun
experience anymore. I'm just gonna be honest with you, so

(09:15):
if I can avoid it. And it takes very long.
It takes long to get to the airport, it takes
long to get through TSA, it takes long to board
a plane. It, I mean, just the whole process. So
I'll give you an example. If I want to visit
family up in Canada in Montreal, technically it's a forty
five minute flight Boston Montreal. Basically you go up and

(09:35):
you go down by the time I get to logan
and get through logan and wait to board the plane,
and you know, you sit on that thing, and my
rear rant is killing me within twenty minutes because the
seats are so freaking hard and my knees are like
sore because I have no leg room. And then the
guy in front of me has to pull back his seat.
I don't know, why, can't you see I'm a big guy,

(09:58):
like be a little considerate, but no, no, he he's gott
to pull it back even more. And he's like, then
he's sleeping, he's snoring, you know, And I'm like, you know,
basically blank me, and so my knees are killing me.
My rear end is killing me. My back is killing me,
and who needs this? So I will drive. I'll take

(10:18):
Grace and the kids. It's about a five six hour drive,
nice and comfortable in my car, my SUV actually, and
you know, you tank up, you stop for a break,
you grab some gas, get a little bit of food,
keep going. It's actually a much more pleasant experience. So yeah,
I do try to avoid flying as much as I can.

(10:41):
But in the wake of this, are you more reluctant
to fly? Do you feel that flying has become dangerous?
And should we be pushing diversity, equity and inclusion when
it comes to pilot, it's flight attendance crew staff and

(11:05):
air traffic controllers. To me, I think it's literally insane.
It is beyond reckless and irresponsible. But that's me. I
want to hear from you. Six one seven two six
six sixty eight sixty eight is the number. Okay, just
super super quick. You need to hear this, okay. There

(11:27):
was a Inspector General's report on Pete Boodhagee's FAA in
June twenty twenty three, so about two years ago, just
a little actually a year and a half ago. So
this is what Biden's own Inspector General said about the

(11:48):
FAA under Pete Budajig. Now you tell me if Trump
is to blame or Budajig is to blame. Quote straight
from the report, seventy seven percent of critical facilities staffed
below threshold. In other words, air traffic control towers. Seventy

(12:14):
seven percent of critical facilities at major airports staffed below threshold. Furthermore,
that Bodhagge's FAA lacks a plan to address staffing challenges.
That's a nice way of saying, chronic shortages of air
traffic controllers posing a risk the continuity of air traffic operations.

(12:42):
FAA cannot ensure it will successfully train enough controllers in
the short term, meaning because they were so aggressively going forward.
You know, we need somebody that's intellectually disabled. Find me
an epileptic. I need an epileptic, Get me people with

(13:02):
mental problems, psychiatric problems. Come on, I need dwarfs. Get
me dwarfs. The shorter the better, just get them in there. Well,
what about all these other competent people that are acing
the test, Well are they what are they? White? White men?
What the hell with them? We don't need that that's
not diversity. That's why there was a chronic shortage and

(13:26):
that's why they couldn't fill it. Now, just like the
LA wildfires again, were you at DEI? Another fatal, deadly
example of deadly incompetence mismanagement. And this is exactly what's wrong.

(13:48):
Democrats are obsessed with these insane, woke policies, really, these
kind of fringe ideological obsessions than with just basic competence
and governing responsibilities. Just do your job, man, It's really

(14:10):
not that difficult. Hire the best people, stoff the best people,
whatever color, creed, gender, who they sleep with, who they
don't sleep with, who cares? Six one seven two six
six sixty eight sixty eight agree, disagree? Jeff in Quincy,

(14:36):
thanks for holding Jeff and welcome. Hey how are you?

Speaker 3 (14:42):
Jeff?

Speaker 4 (14:42):
Bob so you've kind of jumped on it with the
ice you report, But people to Jago who that Jedge
is blaming Republicans for this when the soul role in
all the Trump's nominees.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Lots of great point them. Oh you're dead on, Oh
you're absolutely dead on. And notice, just to bounce off
of what you're saying, Jeff, and I promise I'll give
you all the time in the world. Now, this is
what these dumb liberals are now saying, and I attacked
that argument yesterday on X. Now they're saying Trump is
to blame for what happened. Well, why because he imposed

(15:23):
they say, a federal hiring freeze. Really okay, and they
say yeah, and he's pushing for all of these buyouts
a federal government employees. That's why there's a shortage of
air traffic controllers. So you know why there wasn't enough
staff and air traffic controllers at Reagan National. Blame Trump.

(15:49):
He's making us all less safe. Except there's a problem.
The federal buyouts haven't taken place yet. They haven't occurred.
That deadline is still what is it a week away
or two weeks away, So no one, there was no

(16:10):
hiring freeze, No one got bought out, no one. And
by the way, the buyouts are for federal government employees
who refuse to come back to the office. These are
people who've been working from home since the pandemic. It's
been four years now. And Trump is saying, hey, look man,
we're paying you a ton of cash, ton of money,

(16:32):
taxpayer money. Get your ass to the office. So how
can an air traffic controller call me nuts? How can
they do their job from their home. They've got to
be in the tower, they've got to be there at
the airport. So they've been caught in another massive, massive lie.
So they're trying to blame this on Trump, when it

(16:55):
goes right back to your point, Jeff, who's preventing him
from getting his people staffed and getting his people to
fill these positions? They are who's blocking his nominees. They
are who's trying to prevent them from purging the federal
bureaucracy and hiring nothing but the most talented, merit based people.

(17:15):
They are who was the one that drove the FAA
into the ground. They did, and now they're trying to
pass the buck off to Trump. Jeff, final word to you.

Speaker 4 (17:29):
My final word is I have two things. First thing
is you couldn't even hire a FAA staff and train
them in the week he's been in office. Second of
all is when you ask a federal work gut are
they working hat? They said, you know, I'm how.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
To be working.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Jeff, drop the mic. Okay, this is from a very
respected pilot who texted me, Jeff, the airliner, the American
Airlines flight was on the correct flight plan. Unfortunately it
was the Blackhawk that hit the airliner. And he says,

(18:08):
we'll know a lot more when the black boxes and
the radar tapes are going to show exactly the flight
paths and the altitudes of both aircraft. So we're gonna
find out more, obviously, But why were they at the
same elevation? That's key, same altitude, That's that's why it happened,

(18:31):
you know. In other words, if the plane was slightly higher,
or the helicopter was slightly lower or what, none of
this would have happened. So and that was Trump's point
yesterday at the press conference. So someone made there was
a gigantic screw up, and I think what most of
you are concluding, and I think it's, you know, probably
the right one little bit of pilot error, a little

(18:52):
bit of air traffic control aer maybe a mixture of both.
But we shall see. Six one seven, six sixty eight
sixty eight is the number. David in Brookline. Thanks for
holding David.

Speaker 5 (19:07):
And welcome f good morning from the People's Republic.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
To build in Sudbury.

Speaker 5 (19:17):
When there have been a couple of shootings terrible tragic shootings.
The bodies weren't and I believe one of them was
in a school if I recall when that transgender that
they didn't identify. But the bodies weren't cold yet, and
they were railing anyone they could get, including the former
so called president about gun control wrongly about gun control.

(19:42):
So don't be hypocritical now when President Trump rightly is
pointing out in his own way, as well as being
very sympathetic and empathetic, a very major underlying problem in
our country.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
Jeff.

Speaker 6 (20:00):
And and let me just add at this. Have you noticed, Jeff,
in the last several years I've thought about this, daily
activities have become more difficult, and almost nothing works like
it used to work. You could pick up the phone
and try to call and get customer service at a
utility company, you'll be waiting all day, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
Have you noticed that things have not run well?

Speaker 5 (20:28):
And it's it's and I think you had an earlier
caller that used the word systemic. You don't wake up
one morning and just have a heart attack. It's from
several years or more of not doing the right thing.
So to these lunatics and these people that are completely

(20:49):
off the rail or lack common sense, that want to
point to President Trump, who's been in office.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
For what twelve days?

Speaker 5 (20:59):
I mean, come on, it's a yeah, you have to.
It has to be a belief in an unreality. As
President Trump says, we need a revolution of common sense.
Let me ask you a question, Jeff. If you owned
an NBA team, and I don't mean to be mean,
I'm trying. I actually couldn't believe what I was hearing

(21:22):
yesterday about dwarfs and so forth. Do you want an
NBA team with dwarfs? Then why would I want air traffic.

Speaker 3 (21:31):
Controllers or pilots.

Speaker 5 (21:33):
I mean, you know, no offense, Jeff, but common sense.

Speaker 1 (21:38):
Well, yeah, and look, to be honest, even on the
dwarf issue, you can raise the seat. You know, there's okay,
that's fine, But to me, what's unforgivable? And I agree
with you. Look, you have an NBA is an obvious,
you know example. But look, there are some positions you
need a certain minimum height requirement. I'm sorry, that's just life. Okay,

(22:00):
but let's leave the dwarf thing. You're right, but let's
just leave the dwarf thing on the side. You want
me to get someone who's quote again, I'll quote from
the actual FAA severe intellectual disability, severe intellectually severely intellectually
disabled to be an air traffic controller? Are you not? Like,

(22:27):
I'm sorry, but that's like saying I want someone who's
severely intellectually disabled to be a brain surgeon. Are you normal?

Speaker 5 (22:35):
Like?

Speaker 1 (22:35):
Really? Are you normal? Or serious psychiatric or mental problems?
Now again, look, I know people battle mental health. Everybody's
so touchy. It's not we're not talking about slight depression.
We're not talking about in other words, if I'm schizophrenic, Okay,
I got schizophrenia, You want me to be a pilot?

(22:58):
Are you normal? You want me to be an air
traffic controller? Are you normal? And this was Trump's point yesterday.
He's looking around the room at all these you know, woke, liberal,
left wing, frankly crazy media and he's like, do you
know the pressure these air traffic controllers are under? I mean,

(23:19):
I played the cut earlier and this is true, by
the way, so much pressure that many of them die earlier,
you know, heart attack strokes, because there's just so much
freaking it's constant pressure. Obviously, people's lives every time you
make a decision, hundreds of people's lives are in your hands.
I'll bet you right now, the air traffic controller, I

(23:41):
do feel sorry for that person right now who is
responsible for that flight. I bet that person is. It's
eating them up on the inside. I bet they're going
over and over and over. My god, am I am?
I have blamed? Oh my god, should I have done this?
What if I had done this? It's an immense responsibility.

(24:04):
And Trump says, you know, you think it's what one
plane an hour? There's forty fifty sixty planes. They're flying
in left, right, and center. Especially at Reagan, you need people,
as he put it, at the top of their game,
people with serious intellectual talent and versatility who can hand

(24:27):
their tremendous psychological emotional pressure. Again, we're not talking about
a twenty five Nothing wrong with being an administrative assistant,
don't get me wrong, but I'm not talking about a
twenty five thousand dollars a year, you know, paper pusher. Seriously, Look,
a lot of people can't even do a job at McDonald's. No, really,
it's just because you know, the rush hour, the launch,

(24:49):
the dinner, come on, let's go, you know, we've got
big mac orders are flying tries. Come on, let's go.
Those chicken McNuggets there, we got them, let's go. We've
got customers waiting, never mind air traffic control. So Trump
is looking on an utter disbelief, and again he kept saying.
He goes, I'm not even talking about race and gender.

(25:12):
Let's forget that for a second. And he read that.
He goes epilepsy, psychiatric disability, intellectual disability. He goes, this
is insane. Was saying, if this is criminal, and he
says no, And that's why he signed an executive order. David,

(25:33):
I want to play this. I want to get your reaction.
He literally signed the executive order yesterday. This was so impressive.
He comforts the nation, He calms everybody, He reassures a
shaken public, and then he says, this culture of DEI
is over. Do you understand It's over? Okay, So we're

(25:54):
gonna have the best, best pilots, best air traffic controllers,
best ground crew. It's going to be the best, and
it's going to be hired strictly on merit. The days
of Biden and Obama and DEI are over. Denny goes
over to the White House and to show you it's
not just words. In two hours, roll cut seventy eight, Mike.

Speaker 2 (26:22):
For ensuring that people hired within the FAA, in keeping
with your memorandum of January twenty first, are only the
most outstanding capable people for the jobs that they're being
hired into.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
In other words, competence.

Speaker 2 (26:35):
Yes, their elevating competence over everything else, instead of the
DEI policies that were pursued by the Biden administration.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
I think everyone understands that. Okay, you see the pen,
you can hear it. You just signed an executive order
bang FAA competence above everything else. You promote competence, you
hire competence, train competence. That's it. That's it. And I'm

(27:04):
sure there's character obviously. Can you take pressure? Can you
work in a very stressful situation? Can you multitask? That's
very important, very very important. Now I'm sorry, but I
don't know. Am I missing something? That's like saying the
sky is blue? Just why Trump's looking around? This is
just common sense. It's like two plus two equals four

(27:26):
and you're looking at me like I have eight heads. David,
I gotta ask you, point blank, are you worried about
flying Seriously, are you concerned about the safety of the skies?
And ultimately, do Biden and Buddhajig have blood on their hands?

(27:47):
Sixty seven people are dead in some way, shape or form.
Do they bear at least some responsibility for what happened?
What say you?

Speaker 3 (27:59):
I love the question.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
I want to answer it this way. Yes, I've thought
about that for the last several years. I said, when
is like many people, when is this terrible thing going
to happen at the airport? You're treated like cattle? The
last two things I want to say, Jeff, to the
same point, Booted Jedge tweeted out yesterday. You know he

(28:21):
was trying to retort President Trump, we haven't had any
fatalities under us, and we did a great job. Well,
if termites are eating your foundation away, the house doesn't
fall fall down on day one, they fall if the
house falls down after the termites eat through the foundation.
And finally, Jeff, all the things you said earlier about well,

(28:43):
how could we how could they think this? How could
they think that it's good to have a psychologically, severely
psychologically impaired person in charge of air traffic control? What's
the obvious answer. Look, could they put in a president?

Speaker 1 (29:02):
David Tooche, I gotta say to Shae, I don't mean
to be insensitive. I mean, you know, sixty seven people
are dead. Either you laugh or you cry, but too chee, David,
thank you very much for that call. Look again, Okay,
look up the story please. And there's others. I'm just
citing you one New York Post. Emma Colton is the author,

(29:27):
the reporter, and it was published January fourteenth, twenty twenty four,
so over a year ago. Okay, read to you the headline. Quote.
This is the headline. FAA's diversity push includes focus on
hiring people with quote severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. And

(29:54):
they say, in particular on the FAA's own website, they
are actively recruiting workers under a new diversity and inclusion
hiring initiative. And this is exactly now with the New
York Post. Quotes from the FAA. So, Jeff, what is
this new diversity hiring initiative? Quote? Targeted disabilities? In other words,

(30:21):
these are the people they want to hire. Targeted disabilities
are those disabilities that the federal government, as a matter
of policy, has identified for special emphasis in recruitment and hiring.
So these are the people we really want. Quote according

(30:42):
to the FAA's website, quote, they include hearing disabilities, vision disabilities,
missing extremities like you know, you're missing hands, you're missing feet,
like you're missing body parts, partial paralysis, complete paralysis. I'm

(31:08):
gonna have a pilot that's completely paralyzed. I'm sorry. I'm
gonna have an air traffic controller that's completely I'm sorry.
I mean, I feel very sorry if you're completely paralyzed. Really,
I don't want to seem insensitive, but we're going to
be aggressively hiring air traffic controllers who are paralyzed from
head to toe, epilepsy, they get seizures, severe intellectual disability,

(31:36):
psychiatric disability, and dwarf ism. And I'm the crazy one
six one seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight.
And we're wondering why under bootage egg chronic shortage of
air traffic controllers the whole time, the whole four years

(32:00):
playing parts. Remember that cockpits just doors getting blown open
in the middle of a flight falling from the sky.
Remember that. Now, by the way, three thousand, three thousand
super qualified white males under Bodhagig where their applications were rejected,

(32:24):
scored one hundred percent on all the tests, all the scores, everything,
one hundred percent. Not qualified, super qualified. But because of
this diversity hiring initiative, they were like no, no, sorry,
no no, no, no no. That's why there was a
staffing shortage. They had people that could have filled all

(32:45):
those positions, they didn't want to fill them with the best. Now,
the problem is, how do you get someone with severe
intellectual disability or psychiatric disability or partial paralysis or hmm,
how do we get them in? It's hard to get
I'm in. And so they try and they try, and
they try and they try. And that's why there are

(33:07):
more positions unfilled and more positions unfilled. And I'll go
back to the Washington Time story I cited earlier that now,
because there were such shortages, you have to have more
less people air traffic controllers. Not enough, but you need
the plane. Traffic doesn't stop. As I said, forty thousand

(33:29):
flights a day, three million Americans flying every day. More
people are flying now than ever. So what do they
do the current air traffic controllers You got to work
longer hours, You got to work over mandatory, whether you
like it or not. You're working weekends, you're working seven
days a week, you're working fourteen hours a day. So
what begin And I suspect, I don't know, I'm speculating,

(33:53):
but I suspect that that air traffic controller who may
have made a mistake on that flight. Remember there's supposed
to be two people, one tracking the plane, one tracking
the helicopter. Nope, it was one tracking both. I bet
that person is probably working eighty ninety one hundred hours
a week. I'm almost positive and probably burnt out. And

(34:15):
that's how mistakes make. Mistakes are always made, often because
lack of sleep too much. I always say this, you
want to perform at your best sleep.

Speaker 3 (34:27):
Sleep.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
After a while, it catches up to you. No, you
may think you're superman, you're not. We have an exhausted,
overworked air traffic and understaffed air traffic control system. Trump's
only been in office one week and now at this

(34:51):
new executive order, we're going to hire nothing but the best.
Six one seven two six six sixty eight sixty eight.
Heather in Rockland, Thanks for holding Heather, and.

Speaker 7 (35:03):
Welcome, Hi, Jeffrey, Thank you for taking my call my pleasure.
I want to answer you a question. I don't love flying,
however I do like to travel, so I find it
it is the necessary evil. With that being said, am
I afraid to fly? Not necessarily because I agree, I

(35:25):
agree with what you said before. I forget how you
said it, but basically, the statistics you know of a
plane crash are so low you're more apt to get
in a car accident than a plane crash. But so
with all that being said, I just find and I
find it more since COVID, I find that traveling, like

(35:48):
you know, air travel is a pain in the butt
because of you know, all the all the you know,
halfles you have to deal with at the airport. And
I feel like it's been more you said since nine eleven,
which probably it probably hasn't, but I feel it's exacerbated
since COVID, and.

Speaker 5 (36:08):
I feel like.

Speaker 7 (36:11):
That, you know, they probably obviously they don't have the
right staff, they don't have enough staff with all these
like you know, the flights being delayed and people being
stranded at airp wors with flights being delayed, and it's
just one thing after another. You hear on the news
about about air travel. The airlines being very I feel

(36:33):
like that, you know, greedy. I mean, it's ridiculous that
you have to pay you know, I feel like it's
ridiculous that you have to pay a fee to you
for luggage, you know, to try to check your bag.
I mean, that's that's just totally ridiculous to me. It's
just it's just greed after greed after greed. It's like
money grabbing. To me, that's an and it's annoying that

(36:54):
that on in itself. And I feel, you know, this thing,
the DEI thing, I'm wondering. I'm wondering if it's a
little bit of it. I don't know if this makes sense,
but it just popped into my head. If they leave
the DEI hiring as another way of like, oh well,
we'll just hire people that are less qualified so we
don't have to pay them as much, it goes to

(37:16):
back down to the greed. I could be wrong, but
I mean there's definitely careers you know that I would
love to do that I know I could never do.

Speaker 5 (37:25):
I mean two careers I wouldn't want to do them.

Speaker 7 (37:27):
But just as an example, say I wanted to be
I could never be a nurse or a teacher the most.
I have the utmost respects of those two two professions.
But those are two jobs I could never do.

Speaker 3 (37:39):
You know, you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (37:40):
I feel like you've got to know your limitations. Everybody
has limitations. Not everybody can be president of the United States.
Not everybody can be an actress or you know, a
famous singer, or you know, like everybody has a gift,
but it's not going to be it may not be
necessarily what you want to do, do you know what

(38:02):
I mean?

Speaker 1 (38:02):
Oh, you're dead on No. Really, Look how many people
you know the term a cruise ship singer, right, you
know you go on these cruise ships. Oh they can't sing?
Oh are they bad? You know, they're just bad, you know,
but they want to sing and say, okay, well you know,
we'll pay you nothing and just get on the boat
and sing. Look how many people want to sing, would
love to sing. They just don't have the voice. That's

(38:24):
just sorry, that's just life. I'm really you know, not
that I ever care to do this, okay, but for example,
I could never be a model. No really, honestly, Never
mind my weight and all that. I work out seven
days a week. I work out three hours a day.
I watch my diet. I'm just not naturally a good

(38:44):
looking I'm not saying I'm ugly, but I'm not good looking.
There are just some people you say no, they just
pickot it. They're photogenic. They just the way their faces,
the way their body is what they are naturally physically attractive, beautiful,
handsome people. That's why they're on the covers of you know, magazines,

(39:07):
and they model. And I'm sorry, you know nothing. Doesn't
mean you're a bad person or you're less than. It's
just it's not for you. I'm sorry, you just can't
do it. You know. Here, my wonderful nephew loves football,
loves football, played high school football, worked out like a demon,
pumped waits three four hours a day, practice after practice.

(39:31):
He's just not big enough. He's not big enough, he's
not fast enough. He's not athletic enough to make it
to the college level, never mind the pros. Great kid.
I love him. He's going to go into law enforcement.
I believe. I think he's gonna have a very good
career in law enforcement. His dream was to play in
the NFL. He just doesn't have it, doesn't have the

(39:54):
talent now there's nothing wrong with that. He's just some
people you just can't do it.