Independent Pilots Association President Bob Travis on the loss of UPS pilots in Louisville

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thank you, Paul. Let's bring in the president of the
Independent Pilots Association, Captain Bob Travis. Bob, I'm so sorry
to talk with you under these circumstances.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Well, I appreciate those condolences. It's really heartbreaking for our
pilot group. I have the privilege of representing almost thirty
five hundred pilots at fly for UPS, and obviously, as
everybody's seen by now with the video that's out there,

(00:33):
it was a catastrophic event, catastrophic accident, and I have
spoken to all three of the spouses of our three
crew members who are on board that flight, which in
and of itself is a very heartbreaking thing to have
to do. But my heartbreaks for their families, for the

(00:59):
families of those who are on the ground. There were
victims of the accident, that are those that are still injured.
It's it's a tragedy and the I p A we're
doing all that we can, will be part of the
NTSB investigation as a party to that investigation along with
UPS that's underway right now.

Speaker 1 (01:22):
What happens for those family members who supports them? Does
UPS the company do that?

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Well? I can't speak for UPS, so I can only
speak for I PA, and I'll tell you we have
a family assistance program. Our people were on the ground
and moving to the locations of those family members, which
you know are in different locations in the country and

(01:54):
different parts of Kentucky as well, and we're there to
support them, to provide them with people on site that
give them you know, can answer questions and that type
of thing. As as far as our pilots, we have
a critical incident response program provides support for our pilots

(02:17):
that we're friends with these crew members. We have a
pretty tight group here at IPA with the thirty five
hundred of US, and a lot of us knew them.
A lot of us flew with them. I used to
be an MB eleven instructor myself, so I knew two
of those of the three crew members very well. So

(02:39):
we do have a support system here that we provide
by a group of professionals who remain trained and continue
going through training for this kind of incident response and
providing the support that's necessary for our crew members. The
IPA has a longstanding history of doing that and we're
doing that now. It's currently underway with our people on

(03:01):
site for the family members of crew members on that flight.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Just for people to understand the training is so intense
and it constantly touches on the notion of what to
do when there's a horrific miscalculation or misfiring of the equipment.
And so you can speak to that in general terms
that the training does closely look at catastrophic situations. Correct.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, it runs a spectrum of you know, minor emergencies
all the way to what would be considered catastrophic. We
have a tremendous group of professional men and women that
are well trained and demonstrate that professionalism and that level
of safety every night with different emergencies in the aircraft

(03:55):
that don't get reported because they're not of the catastrophic
nature that you witnessed on that video last night. Going
any further than that would would start getting into the
realm of speculation, and and I don't want to get
into speculation. The NTSB and our our accident teams will

(04:16):
you know, come to those conclusions and those contributing factors.
But we have a group of professionals that are that
are trained to handle all of the emergencies, uh that
get thrown at us. But quite frankly, you know, I
think you witnessed that yourself on that video, that that
was a level of catastrophe or catastrophic catastrophic damage that

(04:44):
was quite traumatic.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Is there grief counseling for their colleagues that have seen
this and know that they're going to be flying aircraft
later tonight.

Speaker 2 (04:56):
Absolutely, that's part of our critical Incident response pro We
have team members on site at different gateways throughout the
country here in Louisville, and they're there to provide any
kind of grief or trauma counseling, counseling, you know. I mean,
if you've ever been to the airport at Louisville, you know,

(05:17):
UPS has many ramps that are right alongside both parallel runways,
and there were quite a few witnesses, you know, to
the event that happened. People that were going out airplanes,
people that were sitting in airplanes on the ramp, on
their way to the ramp, leaving the ramp, all that

(05:38):
kind of stuff. So there were there were quite a
few that witness it. Even on our i PA headquarter
building here overlooks the runways, and you know, we we
had a view of of the damage and the fire
and the smoke and the crash itself from our building.

Speaker 1 (05:57):
That's the ben horrific and I'm so so sorry for
your sending condolences. Bomb and all the great pilots at
work here. I know there's just universal grief over this,
and so we'll all get each other through it. Thank
you for sharing what you could tonight.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
It's my pleasure. Thank you for the willingness to send
those condolences. We've received a lot of condolences both at
the local and state level and on the national level.
I've been on the phone with the Dot Secretary who
graciously called me on my personal cell number to send
condolences and offers of support. Many senators from both sides

(06:40):
of the aisle that goes along with the congressman as
well all the major pilot unions and other unions. Sean O'Brien,
our good friend. Everybody has offered support, assistance, help, it's
been it's been incredible. And the community of Louisville and
the first responders and all the job, the great work

(07:01):
that they've done h in a really short amount of time. Here.
We just want to thank the community of Louisville in
the state of Kentucky for all the outpouring of condolences
and support that you've that you've provided us over these
a really tough, really tough couple of days that we've had.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Now, Captain Bob again, you bet you, Captain Bob Travis,
stay in touch. Thank you so much, Yes, sir. Back
in a few on news Radio eight forty w h
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