IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff talks about the week in aviation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Weather time Brokening Day, We're gonna survive. I'm confident sa
by the rain anyway. Showers become possible after two pm
acord to channel nine, and it'll be a high of
fifty eight showers overnight with mostly cloudy skies, otherwise in
the lower forty eight. Tomorrow morning showers followed by partly
cloudy skies in a highest seventy three. Fifty seven overnight

(00:22):
with some clouds and some rain is predicted for Saturday.
Lots on Sunday. Saturday's high seventy seven thirty eight degrees.
Time for traffic from the UC.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Help Traffhics Center.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
For National Doctor's Day Sunday, we honor the u SEE
Health physicians who are leading breakthroughs from better Tomorrow's learn
more at UC health dot com. South Bend seventy five
break flights through Wachland northbound seventy five. You can add
an extra five between Donaldson and downtown. That's an improvement.
Southbound two seventy five continues slow at the Lawrence Park
Ramp down to the Carroll Croper Bridge, Chucking Ram On

(00:56):
fifty five KR.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
See the talk station.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hey thirty coming with a thirty one pick above Kercity
Talk station always made a better day because this is
the time of week we get the opportunity and the
privilege and pleasure of talking with iHeartMedia aviation expert Jay
rattlif Jay, welcome back, my friend.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Great heaving you on today.

Speaker 4 (01:15):
We get to talk on opening day as well. That
makes it a double nice thing.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
It really is.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Are you gonna be in are you You're not at
the Southern Command so you're in town?

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Are you going to the game by any fans or
the prey?

Speaker 5 (01:26):
We are not.

Speaker 4 (01:27):
And I've gone to a couple of opening days and
it's it's just been incredible. But this year now that
but you know, we've got the Atlanta Brave season tickets,
so we will be going to that opener next weekend.
But no, we're in Cincinnati and joining this wonderful weather
that we have here. But I'm excited. I mean, I
work with Boston radio stations and Cleveland radio stations and

(01:49):
they both say to me, Jay, you don't understand what
you've got that manager. They took our young team and
took us to the World Series. You guys have our
young team and it's not going to be like the
Reds of old and of course I want to believe that,
but you know we swallop and feel like Charlie Brown
with Lucy holding the football, and you just don't know.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
That's a good parallel right there.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Oh, it's a perfect analogy for all of us that
follow and plead for the Reds to win anytime this century.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Yeah, it's like the one moment in time, you know,
we have they haven't played a game yet, we can
think about the idea and the concept of the Reds
getting a pennant, right, you know, it's like making it
all the way so and that that quite often is
a fleeting hope. Anyhow, fingers crossed with the Reds this
year and flip, we got a whole bunch of topics
today which I dearly love. Jay ratlifts and I commented

(02:36):
out loud earlier it's like every time I talk to you,
I've got this sort of running checklist reasons to fly
and reasons not to fly. Number one on the list
reason not to fly taking off from a taxiway.

Speaker 4 (02:48):
Oh my gosh, this one defies my ability to understand.

Speaker 5 (02:53):
I know you have a highly trained well, I mean
that's what they're.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Supposed to be right, could be an equity higher.

Speaker 4 (03:04):
Well, let's hope you're in the cockpit of a commercial
airliner and you're in Orlando. It's nine thirty in the morning,
so it's not night. You don't have the sun in
your eye at sunrise, and you turn onto a taxiway
and you actually start a roll to take off and
it takes an alert air traffic controller, thank you very much,
that shut them down and fast to keep them from
taking off.

Speaker 5 (03:24):
Now understand that a taxiway would.

Speaker 4 (03:27):
Be like you and I going down a one lade
road versus an interstate that has four lanes, And how
you could.

Speaker 5 (03:34):
Mistake that for that?

Speaker 4 (03:36):
I just it just it just boggles my mind because
as often as these men and women fly and you
pull out on taxiway, you're obviously on that one lade road.
You're obviously not on a runway. It's not anywhere near us.
I mean, it's at least three to four times wider
than the taxiway, doesn't.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
It Also isn't it also illuminated with different colored lights
being a taxiway, night signs.

Speaker 4 (04:00):
That tell you, the big signs that tell you turn here. Yeah,
I mean they're out there as well as far as
as everything is just labeled out there, and I can
only think back and it's been like twenty five years
ago that we had something on the West Coast. I
don't know if it was China Airlines, China Eastern, somebody
that did take off from a taxiway and they were

(04:20):
able to do it successfully. There were no injuries and
nobody got hurt, no aircraft damage or anything like that.
But you know, the taxiways are the things at the airport.
When we're moving around the airport, we're coming up on
an active runway, we request permission to cross the runway
from air traffic control if you're on the ground or
if you're in an aircraft. Now, if you're in a taxiway,

(04:41):
it's a little bit different, meaning that if you've got
somebody rolling down a taxiway, you could have a piece
of ground equipment out there, you could have people working
on the runway, you could have another aircraft that's positioning
going where it's supposed to. But the Southwest Airline Slights
was stopped from taking off. They were turned to the
gate as they needed to, The pilots were replaced as
they should have been, and there's an ongoing investigation. I've

(05:03):
got students that work in the airline industry and some
of them for Southwest that are captains, and they're like, Jay,
I just I don't understand this one. I just do not,
because I always trying to figure out, Okay, what could
have led to this kind of a mistake right taking place?
And the first thing I thought of was that, no,

(05:24):
not That might have been a later thought, But my
first thought, tragically was the Common Air crash.

Speaker 5 (05:29):
In Lexington, because one of the contributing.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Factors of that aircraft disaster when that crew lined up
on the wrong shorter runway and took off didn't have
enough room in the plane crash was they were talking
about things that didn't pertain to the operation of the aircraft. Generally,
Vace administration has a very clear sterile cockpit rule and
that says from the time you push back from the

(05:52):
gate until you're at an altitude of ten thousand feet,
every single thing that's discussed is only regarding the aircraft fashion.
I like that that's the rule, but they didn't. That
was one of the things that didn't happen on the
Common Air flight. They were talking about everything, but and
they those distractions cost live. So one of the things
I'll look at here was what was a conversation going

(06:14):
and did that lead to some sort of distraction that
caused this crew to make a mistake. But Brent, I
just it's beyond my ability to comprehend this. I've seen
crews try to land on taxiways like at night it's
brightly lit, and I kind of get that, as far
as sometimes initially you would line up for the wrong thing,
but to take off from one in the middle of
the morning, No, this one I've never seen before.

Speaker 1 (06:37):
All right, well, coming up, don't forget your passport. Eight
thirty six just above cares DE talk station and they'll go.

Speaker 2 (06:45):
Away, be right back, fifty five KRC.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Over it in day showers impossible after two pm. That
word possible, and I'm going to say they're not happening.
High on fifty eight today, overnight little forty eight with
some showers, seventy three tow with morning showers and cloudy
sky's after we got Claudia every night down at fifty seven,
and maybe some rain on Saturday as well. I have
seventy seven right now, thirty six degrees in traffic tart.

Speaker 3 (07:11):
From the UCL Tramphing Center. For National Doctor's Day, we
honor you see Health physicians who are leading breakthroughs for
better Tomorrow's learn more at u see health dot com.

Speaker 2 (07:21):
Stap found seventy.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
Five slows for an extra three to four through walkland
sing for North found seventy five Buttermilk into Downtown roads
are now closed around the Finlay Market to get ready
for the parade. The next big time check will be
at eleven fifteen when the parade route closed US down.
Chuck Ingram on fifty five KR scene the talk station.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Keep your Stupid Mouth Shut at eight forty fifty u
KS talks Day did I had an international listener. My
friend Keith, who listens locally, was in Tokyo last week.
He let me know he was listening to the program
in Tokyo and his iHeartMedia app Jay and he just
let me know. You said they would landed in Dallas
Fort Worth on their way home. Pilot had to abort

(08:04):
the landing of the last mon because the plane turned
into their runway. He said there was the pilot of
the plane was not happy, so Dallas Fort Worth on
that one. I didn't see anything in the in the
news on that, but seems.

Speaker 4 (08:16):
It's a runway incursion. They happen every day, oh com news.
And all it does is really tick off the crew
because then they have to power up, go back around
to get in line and then land. And of course
if you're making a tight connection, thank you very much.
Now you've got ten or fifteen, maybe twenty minutes actly
tacked onto that, which just takes you off even further.
But everybody needs to be safe.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
So not unusual is the operative point here. So that
happens every day. Okay, all right, sadly it does. I
don't like it, don't minimize it. But yeah, well at
least he got out of the situation. Okay, Yeah, don't
forget your password passport? You think a pilot would like
have that as a first order of business, Jay, Most
pilots have it in.

Speaker 4 (08:56):
Their go bags, so they never it's their airline ID
and their passport at their international crew members. And I
mean we had a United flight on its way from
Los Angeles to Shanghai. United Airlines takes off there into
the flight when woops is to determined, one of the
pilots forgot the passport, so they divert over to San Francisco,

(09:16):
laying the passengers dplane, they have to have another crew
member who is properly documented to get on the plane
and off they go, and it's like a fourteen hour flight.
So again you would think that that would be something
that they would have. But Brian, the most I guess
unusual twist of the story is that it happened twice

(09:37):
in one week to United. Now, I don't think the
other one was that they got airborne. I don't believe
I could be wrong there, but it happened twice in
a week, so you only had one occasion but a
second And of course my initial thought is, and I've
got friends at United. I've been asking about this, don't
we check the pilots like we checked the passengers. Don't
we make sure that they have proper documentation like passing

(10:00):
because a lot of times you just flash your airline
ID and boom on you go as far as through
the gate area. But I don't know, so I don't
know enough about United's procedures. I know what we did
at Northwest, but that was a gazillion years ago as
far as what the current United procedures are. But I
can tell you if the procedures are that they don't
check passports. I can guarantee you now that they probably are,

(10:22):
especially on those international flights, to make sure that the pilots.

Speaker 5 (10:25):
Have everything that they need.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Well, I guess we've really irked the Canadians off. I
see that the number of flights between Canada and the
United States is down seventy percent.

Speaker 4 (10:36):
It's it's you know, I knew it was down, but
when you look at the numbers, it's it's unreal. Last
March in twenty twenty four, when we're looking at April
bookings between Canada and United States, there was one point
two million it's that had been booked for travel for
April this year, We're looking next month and it's not
one point two million, it's two hundred ninety five thousand.

Speaker 5 (10:58):
Hum.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
Now, part of this is a reduction for the demand
and travel. The economy slung just a bit, and some
of it as Canadian carriers have cut back in part
because they're irritated over politics, and now they're simply saying that,
you know, there's just not the demand there. But the
numbers are actually a seventy five point seven percent production
in tickets booked year. Every year and that floored me.

(11:19):
I knew that it had been down a bit, but right,
I didn't think it was down that much. But that's
what the numbers show. So yeah, now people still are going,
you know, up to Toronto Boom or Montreal and using
that as an international hub and going to Europe in
other different places. But when you're talking about point to
point travel just between the United States and Canada, yeah,
it's down big time.

Speaker 2 (11:40):
That's amazing to me.

Speaker 1 (11:42):
Anyhow, here's a really important topic. And I talked about
that Boeing seven thirty seven Max case. They didn't bother
telling pilots about the software changes that ultimately led ultimately
led to two plane crashing and multiple loss of lives.
They want to withdraw their guilty.

Speaker 5 (11:57):
Plea, yes this work kind of my blood pressure you
gave my friend.

Speaker 4 (12:02):
Yes they are because finally Boeing, after admitting that day
in essence, covered things up from the Department of Transportation,
from the FAA, from pilots, from airlines, and from the
public about all the deficiencies that were involved in that
Boeing Max airplane that crashed, killing more than three hundred
and forty people. Boeing struck a plea deal last year

(12:23):
that included four hundred and fifty five million dollars in
their words to improve safety and compliance over three years
of court supervised probation as well as supervision by some independent.

Speaker 5 (12:34):
Monitor for three years. And it didn't really please the.

Speaker 4 (12:38):
Victims of the seven thirty seven Max crashes that are
that are suing Boeing because this was in their eyes,
and I think it's an accurate assessment, Boeing was doing
this to keep it out of court. They didn't want
to have the court process, all the documents poured out,
all this stuff going public to remind everybody of how
four years Boeing was hiding the deficiencies from everybody that

(13:01):
was buying their airplane as they were simply trying to
mass produce as quickly as possible these deficient aircraft that
they knew had problems that they planned on fixing them
sometime in the future. Well, now Boeing, under a very
friendly Trump administration, has decided, no, we don't want to
do that anymore now, Bryant, I don't know if I'm

(13:21):
reading the tea leaves here right, but it's as though
Boeing is perhaps looking for a sweeter deal under a
less restrictive administration. Now I don't know if that's accurate,
and please tell me if I'm all wrong here, But
you and I talked about how when the Trump administration
we knew it was coming, airline stocks went up, yet
airlines donating to the Trump Inaugural Fund, Boeing donating to

(13:44):
the Trump and Augural Fund, the idea being that, oh,
this is going to be like to bide administration. This
is going to be a business airline friendly administration and
not holding our feet to the fire like we had before,
which again I complimented to bide administration repeatedly on that.
So am I wrong? Boeing is trying to walk this
back because they think it's it's a more friendly environment

(14:05):
for them.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I just think it puts some more in the spotlight
and minds the American public that, look, this is what
they did, and they didn't most fundamentally bother telling the
pilots what was going to happen with this software upgrade.
I think it's an extraordinarily stupid move, but it'll play out.
We'll find out ourselves. Let's pause, we're bringing back and
one of the things we'll learn to the next segment
with Jay Rattliffe don't make bomb jokes eight forty six

(14:27):
fifty five k see the.

Speaker 2 (14:28):
Talk station fifty five KRC.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
One more time for the weather for opening day and
the parade. We got a chance of rain showing up
around two pm, but it's just past fifty eight is
going to be the high against some showers every night,
dropping a forty eight morning rain tomorrow with party, cloudy
skies after seventy three fifty seven overnight with some clowns
and highest seventy seven on Saturday, but it comes along
with a chance of rain closing out at forty degrees.

(14:53):
Time for final traffic.

Speaker 3 (14:54):
Chuck Ingram from the U see up Tram thing center
from Answerdom Doctor's Day, We honor you see health z
who are leading breakthroughs for better Tomorrow's learn more at
you see help dot com.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
South pound seventy five.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
Slow's a bit out of Lockland northbound between Buttermilk and downtown.
I'm seeing some slow traffic westbound two seventy five at Kelogg.
I'm looking for a problem on the bridge. Chuck Ingram
and fifty five krs the talk station.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
Hey forty nine coming on with an e fifty fifty
five Kercity talk station talking with I heard media aviation
expert Jay Ratliff pull host topics this morning and something
I think you alluded to last week the Southwest Airlines
suggesting they may need some smaller aircraft. I think you
were kind of excited about that, I am, because.

Speaker 4 (15:39):
You know Southwest they fly to seven thirty seven, so
that's the only thing they've They did play seven seventeens
briefly when they gobbled up air Tram, but it's it
they get rid of those. It's a seven thirty seven fleet,
has been for fifty seven years. Southwest is saying that
there are certain markets that the demand for seven thirty
seven just isn't there. Some of these smaller regional airports,

(16:01):
it would be great if they had, like a seventy
seat aircraft, something that accommodates something closer to one hundred seats,
which obviously is not the seven thirty seven. So when
the demand is that low, Southwest has to make one
of two options choices. Do we continue to operate with
more seats than the market needs at that time of day,
or do we pull out of the city most of
the time it's going to be the second option. We're

(16:21):
going to take that aircraft and crew to another market
where our yield or profit or passenger is where it
needs to be. So now Southwest is saying, maybe we
need to look at a different sized aircraft. Now that
would mean a non Boeing seven thirty seven. It might
mean a Bombardier aircraft or Embry air it could be
an airbus. Now a lot of times you would look

(16:42):
at this saying that's just you know, Southwest being clever
and trying to, you know, negotiate with Boeing. Put a
little pressure on them. I don't think. So this is
not the Southwest of old. This is now the Southwest
that's going to be charging for check bags in May.
The Southwest has gone to assigned seats. The Southwest it's
going to offer a pre amium seats. The Southwest they've
been laying off employees for the first time in their history.

Speaker 5 (17:05):
I think they're serious and.

Speaker 4 (17:06):
They could actually look at using smaller airplanes, and I
really think they should. There's certainly an operational advantage when
you don't have one type of aircraft, when you're talking
about ground equipment, training and all the things that go
along with having a very consistent fleet. But when you're
talking about making as much money as you can, it's
a lot like when we trade stocks, Bryan, there's certain
stocks that you can make a lot of money on

(17:27):
and some you make less, and you adjust based on
that particular opportunity. Right with airlines, it's the same thought process.
There's certain cities you make a lot of money if
you go in, but you can't do it with larger
aircraft than what the demand is for there. So for
smaller airports. I hope Southwest goes this route because I
think that it would allow regional airports to enjoy the

(17:48):
Southwest service and the lower fares instead of perhaps losing
that service altogether.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
Makes sense to me, I understand, and I've understood for
a long time. You don't make bomb jokes at the airports.
Got a woman who found that out.

Speaker 4 (18:02):
Yeah, she's only fifty five. I mean, obviously she doesn't
know better, but she's at the airport. She's got three
bags and she's consolidating them to two. She's trying to
save money. She's talking to the gate agent, and I
guess in the course of the back and forth, she
made a comment about, well, you know, it's gonna be
challenging because of this bomb I've got in my bag.
And of course the minute you say those words, everything stops.

(18:23):
The police are summoned, you're taking away, they question you,
anybody that's with you goes with you, and you're gonna
miss your flight, maybe not fly at all. So she
kept saying, oh, no, no, no, it's a joke. But Brian,
I cannot tell you the number of times that we've
had people that, you know, maybe they're nervous. People sometimes
say stupid things when they are nervous and they try
to joke their way out of it. And there's been

(18:43):
so many times that that's happened. I used to tell
our boys when they were growing up, I will kill you.
I will literally kill them if you use the word bomb.
And you know, because kids, how the kids are, Oh, Jay,
I didn't you don't want me to say this word.
I told them, no, we're not gonna be tomorrow's story,
so I just don't do it. In fact, Shery was

(19:04):
traveling one time with bath bombs and the TSA asked
her what they were. She says, I can't tell you,
and the agent says, well, you're gonna have to take.
She goes, I can't because my husband said, never use
that word at dinner. So she finally told him it
was bath bomb's little bath busies that you put in
to bath, you know, when you take a bath. But yeah,
you just don't use that term.

Speaker 5 (19:21):
This lady did. And it's just a reminder of how
you try to make a joke.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
And it's not like going to inconvenience you, but probably
every single person in your party. So even though I
don't want to see Joe's you know clip there, Yeah, keep.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
Your mouth shut, keep your stupid mouth shut. And at
fifty five, yes, she should know better.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
And I know you said that.

Speaker 1 (19:41):
You said that with your tongue in your cheek. Anyhow well,
I guess yeah, we get in the remaining time, we'll
just go ahead and let you do, because then we
got another subject here. But we'll let you do the
hub delays because we always done on that top shop
Dick and Romas out of time.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Yeah, Chicago and Houston, especially Houston. So Houston getting absolutely hammered.
If you're flying United Airlines connecting through Houston, get to
the airportal lecture early today. They may decide to do
what's called an online reroute, getting you to your destination
through another hub. Because Houston's just gonna get hammered through
the rest of the Chicago's going to get a look,
kind of a glancing blow later in the morning, but

(20:18):
Houston clearly the problem.

Speaker 5 (20:20):
Child of the day.

Speaker 2 (20:21):
Appreciate what you do. Jay Ratliff.

Speaker 1 (20:24):
It's always a pleasure to have you on the program,
and I look forward to next Thursday like I always
do to talk to you. Have a great week weekend,
and a happy opening Day to you brother as well.
Thank you, Thanks man coming up an eight fifty five
fifty five K city talk station great show today. Thank
you Joe Strecker for lining up Todd Zenzer. What an
eye opening conversation it is every time we talk with
the former inspector general host of the Citizen Watchdog Project

(20:46):
because he is City of Cincinnati should be thanking Todd
Zenzer for everything he does exposing fraud, waste, and abuse
and insanity. Talked about the new Sports Arena, among other things,
and we had Corey Bowman back in the program, coming
off heels of the debate with have to have pro
ball Corey Bowman dot Com help him out and of

(21:07):
course that conversation with Jay Ratliff at the podcast page
fifty five krs dot com. Tomorrow is Tech Friday. We'll
hear from Dave Hatter as we do every Friday at
six point thirty and other guests. Thank you, Joe Strecker
speaking to guest. Thanks for running down and doing the
rundown and producing the program. Love what you do, my friend. Folks,
have a great day, have a great opening day. Fingers
crossed for the reds and Don'tko Wegg glen Beck's coming up.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
A full rundown and the biggest ten lines just minutes
away at the top of the hour.

Speaker 2 (21:33):
I'm giving you a fact now, Americans shouldn't know. Fifty
five KRS the talk station. This report is sponsored by