October 21, 2025 • 8 mins
Market and Air Travel Analyst Jay Ratliff reports ongoing flight delays across the country as the government shutdown continues to disrupt operations. A United Airlines pilot was injured when a mysterious object smashed through the cockpit windshield mid-flight, prompting an investigation into what caused the mid-air impact.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Go to the hotline and bring in our aviation analyst
Jay Ratliff is back with US. Jay. Air traffic control
staffing issues popped up again because of the shutdown caused
more flight delays across the country yesterday. What are you
seeing in terms of the FAA's ability to navigate those
staffing issues during this shutdown.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, I mean, everything's remaining safe. And one of the
things that will happen is whenever we have a import
of the world or the airspace here in the United
States where we have some congestion that's starting to build,
the FAA throttles back. They will float graphic that's coming
into that area until it sends out enough where things
(00:42):
can operate as needed given the staffing level that happened
to be in place at that time. And of course, Ryan,
one of the things I look at when I'm looking
at day to day delays, we average on just pretty
much the birth of the year, about forty one hundred
delays a day. Now, those could be mechanical delays, they
(01:02):
could be weather delays, they could be air traffic control delays,
but that's the big number. So a lot of times
when I'm looking at these days where people are reporting.
You know, Jay, we had seven thousand delays today. I'm like, oh, okay,
well we had a lot of weather, and that weather
accounts for like fifty percent of those delays as far
as what's taking place, So we're not at a point
where it's chaos out of control of those types of
(01:25):
things because the numbers simply don't support it. We are
seeing more reporting on certain things. I mean, we've had
air traffic control center that have been shut down routinely
from time to time across the country without a single
word in print or any anyone really reporting on it.
We've had it happened a thousand times. But now when
we have an air traffic control center that cuts down
(01:47):
from a staffing standpoint and we're like three thousand plus
air traffic controller short, well, now it's a headline because
of some of the things that are that are going
on with the shut down in several other things. So
I don't want to stay it's business is huge, because
that would be a mischaracterization. You still have air traffic
controllers that are calling in sick so that they can
go work healthwhere where they can actually get paid. And
(02:09):
you know, I've told you before I can't fault anybody
for doing that. Because you get a partical paid deck
last week on the fourteenth, they're looking at a note
deck next week on the twenty eighth. And not until
things get worked out will things get caught up. And
certainly for the threat levels a lot of these air
traffic controllers, it's tough for those that would like to
(02:29):
be at work but can't, and for those that report
to work and are courced to work even shorter handed
wise than what they had before.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And there are some concerns, including from our local congresswoman
Anna Pauline a Luna, that this shutdown may last through Thanksgiving.
And you talked about this last time we discussed this topic.
That would be a nightmare, right And I would be
shocked Ryan if it did. Now, if both sides are
(02:57):
going to use that Thanksgiving, you know, approaching holiday week
as maybe a point of pressure, hoping the other side
is going to give in.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
But if we go rolling into the second third week
of November and we're approaching Thanksgiving and we've got this
current setup, we're going to be seeing more delays than usual,
and it's really going to test the system to a
degree that we've not had in quite some time. The
other thing is if we have bad weather during that time,
(03:26):
well that'll best are off because weather plus that strain
again is not making things unsafe. I don't want to
paint that picture, but it would certainly be one where
we be facing a lot more delays and headache than
what we've seen. But you know, to this point, the TSA,
the front line folks there, we've not seen pictures for
the most part of these mile long lines of people
(03:47):
trying to get through the Scurity tech point due to
a staffing issue at certain airport. It's working very very well.
Now we need to get everybody back because to me,
there's no such thing as a not essential employee. It's
a matter that may be less essential, but look at
the team. We need every member of the team back,
and certainly I'm anxious for that to happen, and I'm
(04:07):
hoping sooner than later all this gets resolved.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
We're joined by our aviation analyst, Jay rad Leff. Let
me ask you about an incident that happened on Friday afternoon.
Two United Airlines passenger jets collided on tarmac at Chicago
O'Hare that followed to Delta airline jets that collided at
the intersection of two taxiways at LaGuardia a few weeks ago.
What happened in the case of these two United planes.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
We normally have fifteen to twenty of these a year
where you have these low speed impacts where the two
you know, the planes put the wings or something. A
lot of times on the tarmac is one pushing back
or pulling into a gate, and it drives management crazy
because you know, these are low speat impacts. You normally
have people around the aircraft as walkers that are supposed
(04:53):
to serve as extra eyes for the flight group. And
yet these things continue to happen, and they're happening at
a lightly more as far as the occurrence rates and
what we're used to send. And you know, I think
a lot of this has to do with a couple
of things. One, a lot of the airlines are port
staffed in some regards, just like we have with a
lot of other businesses. And right are the people that
(05:15):
are working on the tarmac. For the most part. When
you look at the average experienced age as far as
time the experience they have, it's not nearly as deep
as what it's been in your path. So we may
be staffing wise up to speed, but the experience level
may not be where we would have. So people intend
to get floppy, or they may just let mistakes happen
(05:35):
that shouldn't happen. And we have some of these situations,
but it's you know, nobody hardly ever gets injured in
these things. But what happens is when you have two
planes to clip wings, well, both those aircraft are now
taken out of service. The people that are preparing to
get on those flights are not going to be getting
on them, and those that were going somewhere now pull
back to the gate and off the plane. They come
(05:56):
put it on a later flight that day or sometime
the next day. It's nothing but a mountain of aggravation
when it happens. And I can say it from a
management standpoint, ninety nine times out of one hundred, these
can be avoided if you just simply had people doing
their job around the aircraft.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Last thing I want to ask you about a United
Airlines pilot injured after some mystery objects smashes the plane's
windshield at thirty six thousand feet. You've got images of
him injured in the cockpit. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Well, the United Light ten ninety three was flying Denver
to La It was at you know, thirty six thousand
feet when all of a sudden they had the first
offering windfield. It was cracked. Now, this happens a lot.
Sometimes it happens from because of a heating issue or
sometimes a pressurization issue. And the windfield is not like
our car windsfield. It's got three layers of in essence,
chemically strengthened glass that's designed to withstand, you know, the
(06:50):
temperature changes, the pressure changes, bird drice, hailstorms, those kinds
of things, and sometimes you'll have the outer pan we'll
crack or crack, but the others remained intact. What was
different here was that this debris, as if the cracks
actually entered into the flight deck and caused injuries to
one of the pilots who had his arm bloodied as
(07:11):
a result. The plane landed fifty minutes later in cult
Lake City, and when they were on the ground they
noticed what appeared to be almost court marks that were
found on the outer cell of the plane, and that
indicated kind of an external impact took place. And you know,
thirty six thousand feet of bird strikes unlikely, So it
was either hail which wasn't reported in the area, or
(07:33):
piece of space debris that actually entered the atmosphere. It
could have struct the plane. And if that was the case,
that's the first part. Now, the most famous cockpit Winchfield
story with Bridge Airways fifty three to ninety. The plane
was at seventeen thousand feet and the captains wouldn't field
totally blew off because of improperly being installed, and that
(07:53):
explosive decompression actually caused the captain, who was not wearing
a seat belt, to be thrown forward and he went
out the open. They had a four. He had a
flight attendant that had just entered the cockpit. Ryan grabs
onto the legs of this captain who's outside the aircraft
and held on for twenty minutes while that plane landed
(08:13):
and got on the ground. That's brink Stairways flight fifty
three to ninety. If you do a Google image shirt,
you will see pictures of the captain outside of the aircraft.
You will square it as a photo stop type of thing,
and it's not real, but it is BA fifty three
to ninety. Check that out. That's the most famous cockpit
Winsfield story that we've ever encountered.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That's unbelievable. I'm checking those pictures out as soon as
I get off the phone with you, Jay. Jay Ratliffe,
our aviation analyst with us this morning. Jay, Really great
to talk to you. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
So, Ryan Gorman Show on News radio WFLA. Follow us
on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show, and find
us online at Ryan Gormanshow dot com.
Go to the hotline and bring in our aviation analyst
Jay Ratliff is back with US. Jay. Air traffic control
staffing issues popped up again because of the shutdown caused
more flight delays across the country yesterday. What are you
seeing in terms of the FAA's ability to navigate those
staffing issues during this shutdown.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
Well, I mean, everything's remaining safe. And one of the
things that will happen is whenever we have a import
of the world or the airspace here in the United
States where we have some congestion that's starting to build,
the FAA throttles back. They will float graphic that's coming
into that area until it sends out enough where things
(00:42):
can operate as needed given the staffing level that happened
to be in place at that time. And of course, Ryan,
one of the things I look at when I'm looking
at day to day delays, we average on just pretty
much the birth of the year, about forty one hundred
delays a day. Now, those could be mechanical delays, they
(01:02):
could be weather delays, they could be air traffic control delays,
but that's the big number. So a lot of times
when I'm looking at these days where people are reporting.
You know, Jay, we had seven thousand delays today. I'm like, oh, okay,
well we had a lot of weather, and that weather
accounts for like fifty percent of those delays as far
as what's taking place, So we're not at a point
where it's chaos out of control of those types of
(01:25):
things because the numbers simply don't support it. We are
seeing more reporting on certain things. I mean, we've had
air traffic control center that have been shut down routinely
from time to time across the country without a single
word in print or any anyone really reporting on it.
We've had it happened a thousand times. But now when
we have an air traffic control center that cuts down
(01:47):
from a staffing standpoint and we're like three thousand plus
air traffic controller short, well, now it's a headline because
of some of the things that are that are going
on with the shut down in several other things. So
I don't want to stay it's business is huge, because
that would be a mischaracterization. You still have air traffic
controllers that are calling in sick so that they can
go work healthwhere where they can actually get paid. And
(02:09):
you know, I've told you before I can't fault anybody
for doing that. Because you get a partical paid deck
last week on the fourteenth, they're looking at a note
deck next week on the twenty eighth. And not until
things get worked out will things get caught up. And
certainly for the threat levels a lot of these air
traffic controllers, it's tough for those that would like to
(02:29):
be at work but can't, and for those that report
to work and are courced to work even shorter handed
wise than what they had before.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
And there are some concerns, including from our local congresswoman
Anna Pauline a Luna, that this shutdown may last through Thanksgiving.
And you talked about this last time we discussed this topic.
That would be a nightmare, right And I would be
shocked Ryan if it did. Now, if both sides are
(02:57):
going to use that Thanksgiving, you know, approaching holiday week
as maybe a point of pressure, hoping the other side
is going to give in.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
But if we go rolling into the second third week
of November and we're approaching Thanksgiving and we've got this
current setup, we're going to be seeing more delays than usual,
and it's really going to test the system to a
degree that we've not had in quite some time. The
other thing is if we have bad weather during that time,
(03:26):
well that'll best are off because weather plus that strain
again is not making things unsafe. I don't want to
paint that picture, but it would certainly be one where
we be facing a lot more delays and headache than
what we've seen. But you know, to this point, the TSA,
the front line folks there, we've not seen pictures for
the most part of these mile long lines of people
(03:47):
trying to get through the Scurity tech point due to
a staffing issue at certain airport. It's working very very well.
Now we need to get everybody back because to me,
there's no such thing as a not essential employee. It's
a matter that may be less essential, but look at
the team. We need every member of the team back,
and certainly I'm anxious for that to happen, and I'm
(04:07):
hoping sooner than later all this gets resolved.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
We're joined by our aviation analyst, Jay rad Leff. Let
me ask you about an incident that happened on Friday afternoon.
Two United Airlines passenger jets collided on tarmac at Chicago
O'Hare that followed to Delta airline jets that collided at
the intersection of two taxiways at LaGuardia a few weeks ago.
What happened in the case of these two United planes.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
We normally have fifteen to twenty of these a year
where you have these low speed impacts where the two
you know, the planes put the wings or something. A
lot of times on the tarmac is one pushing back
or pulling into a gate, and it drives management crazy
because you know, these are low speat impacts. You normally
have people around the aircraft as walkers that are supposed
(04:53):
to serve as extra eyes for the flight group. And
yet these things continue to happen, and they're happening at
a lightly more as far as the occurrence rates and
what we're used to send. And you know, I think
a lot of this has to do with a couple
of things. One, a lot of the airlines are port
staffed in some regards, just like we have with a
lot of other businesses. And right are the people that
(05:15):
are working on the tarmac. For the most part. When
you look at the average experienced age as far as
time the experience they have, it's not nearly as deep
as what it's been in your path. So we may
be staffing wise up to speed, but the experience level
may not be where we would have. So people intend
to get floppy, or they may just let mistakes happen
(05:35):
that shouldn't happen. And we have some of these situations,
but it's you know, nobody hardly ever gets injured in
these things. But what happens is when you have two
planes to clip wings, well, both those aircraft are now
taken out of service. The people that are preparing to
get on those flights are not going to be getting
on them, and those that were going somewhere now pull
back to the gate and off the plane. They come
(05:56):
put it on a later flight that day or sometime
the next day. It's nothing but a mountain of aggravation
when it happens. And I can say it from a
management standpoint, ninety nine times out of one hundred, these
can be avoided if you just simply had people doing
their job around the aircraft.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Last thing I want to ask you about a United
Airlines pilot injured after some mystery objects smashes the plane's
windshield at thirty six thousand feet. You've got images of
him injured in the cockpit. Tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Well, the United Light ten ninety three was flying Denver
to La It was at you know, thirty six thousand
feet when all of a sudden they had the first
offering windfield. It was cracked. Now, this happens a lot.
Sometimes it happens from because of a heating issue or
sometimes a pressurization issue. And the windfield is not like
our car windsfield. It's got three layers of in essence,
chemically strengthened glass that's designed to withstand, you know, the
(06:50):
temperature changes, the pressure changes, bird drice, hailstorms, those kinds
of things, and sometimes you'll have the outer pan we'll
crack or crack, but the others remained intact. What was
different here was that this debris, as if the cracks
actually entered into the flight deck and caused injuries to
one of the pilots who had his arm bloodied as
(07:11):
a result. The plane landed fifty minutes later in cult
Lake City, and when they were on the ground they
noticed what appeared to be almost court marks that were
found on the outer cell of the plane, and that
indicated kind of an external impact took place. And you know,
thirty six thousand feet of bird strikes unlikely, So it
was either hail which wasn't reported in the area, or
(07:33):
piece of space debris that actually entered the atmosphere. It
could have struct the plane. And if that was the case,
that's the first part. Now, the most famous cockpit Winchfield
story with Bridge Airways fifty three to ninety. The plane
was at seventeen thousand feet and the captains wouldn't field
totally blew off because of improperly being installed, and that
(07:53):
explosive decompression actually caused the captain, who was not wearing
a seat belt, to be thrown forward and he went
out the open. They had a four. He had a
flight attendant that had just entered the cockpit. Ryan grabs
onto the legs of this captain who's outside the aircraft
and held on for twenty minutes while that plane landed
(08:13):
and got on the ground. That's brink Stairways flight fifty
three to ninety. If you do a Google image shirt,
you will see pictures of the captain outside of the aircraft.
You will square it as a photo stop type of thing,
and it's not real, but it is BA fifty three
to ninety. Check that out. That's the most famous cockpit
Winsfield story that we've ever encountered.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
That's unbelievable. I'm checking those pictures out as soon as
I get off the phone with you, Jay. Jay Ratliffe,
our aviation analyst with us this morning. Jay, Really great
to talk to you. Thanks so much.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Looking forward to it.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
So, Ryan Gorman Show on News radio WFLA. Follow us
on Facebook and Instagram at Ryan Gorman Show, and find
us online at Ryan Gormanshow dot com.
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