IHeartMedia Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff talks about the week in aviation

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Here's your Channel nine first one and one forecast. Today,
We're going to be a have a sunny skyes at
high eighty four, clear skies over nineteen fifty seven, sunny
in eighty five tomorrow with overnight love fifty six again
clear skies, a few clouds showing up on Saturday with
a high of eighty seven fifty eight. Now traffic time, probably.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
The ucy Got Traffic Center.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
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You see health addiction services can help.

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Call five one, three, five, eighty five, nine seven two
two nont pound seventy five continues over a forty minute
delay thanks to an accident. Your town street left lanes
remain block traffic backing up to seventy four southbound seventy one,
break lights from above two seventy five and to your
past thread paint. They're cleaning up the rec southbound two
seventy five and twenty eight and no for you. Shot

(00:47):
ingram on fifty five k are seen the talk station.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
Just shy of eight thirty fifty five KERR CD talk station.
The world keeps turning and life does go on in
spite of the terrible things that happened like Charlie Kirk's
assassination yesterday. But because it's Thursday and it is eight thirty,
aviation issues still continue, and it's nice to have a
change of topic, getting away from the somber, terrible realities
of yesterday, including the somber and terrible realities of today's

(01:15):
anniversary of nine to eleven. First topic, welcome back. iHeart
media aviation expert Jay Rattlift. I appreciate you coming on
the program.

Speaker 4 (01:21):
Jay. Good morning to you, Briant.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
Any comments on the before we get to nine to
eleven on Charlie Kirk and I know you were moved
by it as well as so many of my listeners.

Speaker 4 (01:32):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I hear a lot of people talking
about how it's worse now politically divide than that this
country has ever seen, and I never agree with that comment.
I just finished a seven hundred page autobiography on Abraham Lincoln.
I think it was Michael Berling Game that wrote it.
Just incredible work, and it talks about different times where

(01:54):
the government and some of the political divide was so deep,
so severe, so violent that you had newspapers calling for
the assassination of political figures, so at least we're not
at that point. But you know, it's certainly bad. But
you know, one of the things that we have is
the wonderful thing called free speech. And you know, there

(02:15):
are people that disagree, and you know, when you start
talking about things that happen and it leads to people
taking violent actions, it's just it just makes you sick.
But you can't tell people to not continue to speak,
either in ways you appreciate or ways that you do not,
because that's what this country is all about. And I

(02:36):
just hope that there's people to pick up the mantle
and continue what Charlie and his team were doing, because
when you're talking about investing in the lives of the youth,
which they were doing at college campuses and other places,
they were investing in the future of this country. And
I really hope that people who tried to snuff him
out for whatever the reason it was, and we still

(02:58):
don't know what that reason was, that more people say
step up and say, look, I'll carry the torch because
people have to continue doing what was started because you
talk about something that was unthinkable as far as President
Trump picking up the youth vote in a lot of
places around the country. That was because of the Charlie

(03:19):
Kirks of the world that made that possible. And you
certainly want that to continue because those are the people
that are going to be taking care of our kids
and our kids' kids as far as leading this country,
and we need them to be ones that love this
country and that recognize it for the great place that
it is.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Amen to that without question. So well, another day to
remember twenty fourth anniversary of nine to eleven. We all
know what crazy fundamental is people can do in the
name of their faith and ideology, and of course we
have that fresh in our memories in spite of the
fact it was twenty four years ago. Question, Jay Rayeliffe,
I know you're an aviation expert. So in the area

(03:58):
of aviation, are we safer now than we were back then?

Speaker 4 (04:01):
We are, and a lot of people try to suggest
to me that that we're not, and I'm like, well, what,
I would agree with you if you're right, but you're not.
Before nine to eleven, we weren't screening any check luggage
into the United States domestically. That was a huge, huge issue.
Anytime a plane would crash, we would be scared to
death at another ten, we're going to follow the sky.

(04:23):
When the FBI and the FAA were updating us monthly
on the threat, Bin loaded and made the commercial aviation.
We feared for explosives in check luggage, we feared for
surfaced air missiles. We had a lot of other contingencies
that we were planning for and trying to be ready
to respond to. At no point in time did we

(04:44):
envision the attacks as they were. And of course, the
minute the second plane hit, we knew we were under attack.
We knew it was Ben Laden, and we knew other
planes would be involved. And that's when Ben Sliney comes in.
Ben Sliney was the director of the FA. He was
the national Operations Manager at the time that was in charge,
and when we knew we were under attack and other

(05:06):
planes would be involved, he made the unprecedented decision to
ground every airplane, immediately, telling his air traffic controllers around
the country, whatever airplanes you're working with, get him on
the ground now, because we've got to remove the threat.
And then we knew any planes that remained in the
air were possibly hostile targets, so we had to get
every plane on the ground. So he made that call.

(05:28):
They never rehearsed for this, never, and all of these
air traffic controllers had to do their best, and they
did a perfect job of getting every aircraft on the
ground and been slimy. Fran it was his first day
on the job when he made that call, and it
was it was the call to make. And again at

(05:51):
a lot of heroes on that day, and too many
to speak up. But we never want to forget and
I refuse to let this day ever arrive without thinking
about the people that were responsible for that day and
people that have kept us safe since.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
We'll talk about baptism by fire on that job, Jay, Yeah,
and a.

Speaker 4 (06:10):
Lot of people would have been very hesitant, lacking the
confidence to make that kind of unprecedented you want us
to do what called, But he did it because he knew. Look,
we don't know how many planes are involved, so let's
get everything out of the sky now. And I have
friends that were on planes that were getting a hold
of you that day from around the country that were

(06:31):
stranded in different places in New York and on the
West Coast and different things. Because nothing moved for four
days after that, because the aviation world commercially was grounded
at that point in time. So yeah, to do that
as he did it, it was something. But you know,
one of the reasons aviation has always been a target

(06:52):
for terrorists. One, it gets incredible public relations type thing
where people are watching. The problem also is that you
have a situation where you have the economic impact, the
adverse economic impact that takes place when you have an
attack as you do. So that's one of the reasons
that aviation has always been a target for terrorists because

(07:13):
you get the attention, you try to generate the fear,
and it impacts the pocketbook of America, so to speak.
And it took us months and months and months to
recover economically from the four days that that economic engine
was you know, shut down, no question about it.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
Let's pause. We'll bring Jay Ratlift back a few other
things to talk with them about aviation issues today. It's
eight thirty six right now, be right back.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Fifty five Krcshiva.

Speaker 1 (07:39):
Forty fifty five PERCD talks Nation Tech Friday with Dave
Hatter every Friday at six thirty and every Thursday beginning
at eight thirty. iHeart Meaty aviation expert Jay Ratlift pivoting
away from nine to eleven and thankfully we are safe
for now. FAA refusing to lift the seven thirty seven
production limit on Boeing. What's that all about.

Speaker 4 (08:00):
Well, it goes back to the two Boeing Max crashes
that took place, and you know, as the situation you know,
kind of unfurled, we could see that Boeing was in
essence holding a lot of things. You know, they were
withholding a lot of facts from the FAA, airlines, pilots,
things of this nature.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
This is the software upgrade that they didn't tell any
pilots about which took over control of the airplane, and
they reacted wrong because they didn't know the software had
been updated to make it react differently.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
Yeah, that in the fact that they didn't have it
even in the emergency reference manual for when it malfunctioned
what the crew was supposed to do. I mean, they
were totally in the dark. What happened was that following
those two Max crashes, the FAA put Boeing on a slowdown.
They capped a number of seven thirty seven Max aircraft
that they could make in a month at thirty eight.

(08:52):
Now recently, Boeing, since they've had that limit for a while,
they've asked Boeing to increase excuse me, they've asked the
FAA has to increase that number from thirty eight planes
a month to forty two. But right now the Federal
Aviation Ministration has yet to kind of grant approval, and
I'm glad for that. Ultimately, Boeing wants to get it

(09:12):
to fifty two planes seven thirty seven maxes a month
because they're obviously trying to address backlog issues. They've got
five to six thousand planes on backlog, plus they're obviously
trying to better compete with Airbus, who's you know, kind
of been grabbing the orders for quite quite a while here.
But right now the FA is saying, look, there's still

(09:33):
some things we've got to see, and I'm glad to
see that kind of oversight from the Federal Aviationdministration on Boeing.
And look, they've got to prove Boeing to us that
they have turned the corner that they're not going to
repeat some of the crap they did before, because they
said five years ago, we've learned our lesson things are
going to get better. Then what happens then you have

(09:53):
the door plug drop off that last airline's flight last
January year ago, where it was obvious Boeing was doing
not only what they were doing before rushing things, but
it perhaps was even worse. So we got a long
way to go before I'm going to be convinced that
Boeing has learned their lesson. But we'll have to wait
and see. But you know, right now the Boeing Max

(10:15):
aircraft are still being limited to just thirty eight a month,
and we'll see how much longer that continues.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
What amazes me in that entire discussion and analysis of it,
and I appreciate that that Boeing is so far behind
in production of the airplanes. I mean, if you put
an order in today, how many years is it going
to before order before Boeing could deliver an airplane. I
mean they haven't delivered on the presidential airplane. That thing
got ordered what fifteen years ago or something.

Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yeah. Well, and actually President Trump in his first term
ordered that airplane and he said, hey, I'll make a
deal with you. We'll buy two if we can get
a discounted price. And he did remember this guy the
art of the deal, right, yeah, oh yeah, that's what
he's doing. But it was negotiated at such a price
and Boeing agreed to it, those dummies, and it is
so far over cost right now, over budget. Boeing's got

(11:05):
to deliver and the government that can sit back with
their hands folded saying, yeah, it's going to be delayed,
give us our aircraft, but we're getting at an unbelievable discount.
He saved the American people a great deal of money.
Now you certainly hope it's not going to be rushed
and then it's gonna have issues like some of these
other plays have had. But yeah, we're eventually going to
have it. But also remember Boeing's got a number of

(11:29):
strike employees on strike right now that are part of
the defense side of things. That's going on six seven
weeks now, So Boeing has that headache. They're still addressing
as well, and there's a great deal of pressure for
that to take place. But right now Boeing has headaches
on multiple levels right now. And you hope they can
get things turned around, straightened out. And I'll tell you

(11:49):
in two or three years, my friend, if we can
look back and say, yep, Boeing's turned the corner, because
I tell you what I was an idiot to believe
them five years ago when they said they were going
to change. I'm not going to do that again. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Well, how's the market reacting to that? I haven't followed
Boeing stock in a long time, and I know it.
It went into the toilet after nine to eleven and
some people thought.

Speaker 4 (12:09):
It was under one hundred dollars a share. And you
know what's happened now is it's obviously rebounding quite a bit.
It's up I think two twenty eight is what we've
seen of late. It's actually been improving quite a bit
over the last you know, six months or so, when
it was one hundred and forty five dollars a share
or so back in April May of last year or

(12:29):
this year, and has increased quite a bit just in
the last six months. So they're on an upward trend
and they obviously want that to continue. Now. When the
Boeing Max crashes happened, I think the stock was at
three fifty three sixty five or so, so it's come
quite a bit down since then. But of late, Boeing
has been kind of on the uptick.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Well, and you know, just before we park copy go
to another break and we'll come back and we'll talk
about the war of words between United and Spirit and
get our hub delays. I find it interesting, Mark from Domina,
the Boeing stock has improved that dramatically since it's low point.
Just because of all the problems you just outlined.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
People seem to think, well, a couple of things. You're
Boeing and how many people build airplanes. You have Boeing
and Airbus that have the market share. You also have
Bombardier in Canada that you have embry Air in South America,
and you have Comac, a Chinese manufacturer that's gaining them
in Asia. But those are the two main people. Air

(13:28):
Bus has an incredible backlog of seven or eight thousand planes, Okay,
Boeing has a huge backlog. So the thought is, okay,
let's buy plus Boeing. Think of it. If I'm going
to go get a deal on an airplane, who is
the company that's in the worst spot to negotiate from
a position to strength Boeing. Yeah, so I can go

(13:49):
there and probably hammer at a pretty good discount. And
if it's five or six years where I get my planes, Okay.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
All right, fair enough, it's going to be.

Speaker 4 (13:56):
That long for air Bus. It's going to take you
four or five years or at least to get the
Airbus airplane. So yeah, you know what's the extra couple
of years?

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Fair enough Lane, the complex market forces that exist in
the world, boiling it down to simple terms, Jay ratlif
we'll bring it back. We'll talk hub delays and what's
going on between United and the Spirit. Be right back
after these brief words.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
Fifty five KRC Hi, you final a look at the
weather for this morning.

Speaker 1 (14:20):
UH Channel nine says sunny and eighty four overnight clear
in fifty seven, sonny in eighty five. Tomorrow overnight clear
in fifty six. Eighty seven to be the high on Saturday.
We will get some clouds sixty degrees right now. Get
that final traffic update. Chuck from the.

Speaker 3 (14:36):
UCU Triumphon Center Addiction news and treatable medical disorder that
effects both brain and behavior.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
You see how the diction services can help.

Speaker 3 (14:44):
Call five one three five to eighty five nine seven
two two SAT found seventy five continues slow through.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
Lachman, but the bigger delay is.

Speaker 3 (14:52):
Northbound seventy five from seventy four to an accident in
Town Street.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
Where the left lanes are blocked off.

Speaker 3 (14:58):
That's over a half hour delay in close in the
forty five inbound seventy four taking a hit because of
that jam too. Chuck Ingram on fifty five KARS the
talk station.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
At nine fifty five kr CD talk station Brian Thomas
with iHeartMedia aviation expert Jay Rattle a few segments with
him every Thursday. I always enjoy the back and forth, Jay,
and appreciate you coming on the show. Pivoting over United
in the Spirit we got war of words apparently.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
Well yeah, I mean United is saying that. You know,
this is the CEO of United speaking. He was asked
about Spirit Airlines and the problems they've been having and
his response was, well, it was an interesting, this low
cost attempt, but it was obviously a failed experiment. That's
what he called as the CEO for United Spirit. Well,

(15:52):
the CEO for Spirit kind of fired back, saying, look,
we're not finished yet, and they're trying to rally the
troops because you know we've talked about it. They filed
for their second chapter eleven in less than a year,
and right now they're doing everything that they can, adjusting routes,
laying off excess personnel to survive. So I'm not going
to count Spirit out quite yet. Now, if I was

(16:14):
sitting and I am not in the headquarters of you know, Spirit,
I'm saying, hey, we've got some new numbers that might
add a little fun to the conversation. We've got the
August on time performance numbers. As far as who had
the best on time performance in the month of August,
Delta took top spots at eighty four percent. Do you

(16:36):
know who is in second?

Speaker 2 (16:37):
Spirit?

Speaker 4 (16:37):
Second place was Spirit Airlines. United was in fourth. So
if I'm the CEO and be like, hey, pal, if
you're so good, how come we've got a better on
time performance. Now there's another column on completion factor is
the number of flights that you complete. They may have
been delayed, but you got everybody to their destination. That

(16:59):
is a huge number in aviation. The best airline with
the best completion factor was Spirited ninety nine point eight percent. Wow,
United was down in like they were ninety eight percent.
So again Spirit took top honors there. Now I have
to say this because I'm gonna get emails from people saying, Jay,
you can't compare Spirit to Delter United because Delton United

(17:21):
had like one hundred and fifty thousand flights and Spirit
had twenty thousand. Well, I'm not gonna let the facts
interfere with a really cool story. So I'm gonna say
Spirit kicked Uniteds.

Speaker 1 (17:30):
Both well with twenty thousand flights. On Spirit side, I mean,
I think you're within statistical sampling to say that they
did a better job in spite of them.

Speaker 4 (17:40):
Even if they didn't, I'm gonna have fun with it.
So yeah, Spirit did better, but it's I'm hoping to
use it now. Spirit sent me some pretty we don't
like you emails over the years because I've talked about
them with what they do, and some of the people
in their PR department just don't have a sense of
humor because they have gone after me big time. I mean,

(18:00):
you're talking six paragraphs of how I don't know what
I'm talking about, but yeah, that's fine. Over the last
few years, they've tried to turn it around. I think
they're trying to do it now, and I'm actually on
their side. They may not believe that, but hey, I
take these August numbers. This is bulletin board material.

Speaker 1 (18:16):
Amen. All right, Well, always I know on hub delays.
How's it looking out there for the listeners are going
to be flying.

Speaker 4 (18:21):
We need good news, Brian, especially on a day like today,
so I'm gonna try to give it to you with
minimal hub delays. Had some issues earlier in Washington, d C.
They are gone all the celebrations, the memories. In New York,
it looks like you're going to have a great weather
day there. Don't really have any hub delays that I
can see across the country for the bulk of the day,
other than maybe central to southern Florida. I think they're

(18:42):
going to be minimal twenty minute delays at that It's
going to be a beautiful and a well deserved day
for travel.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well at least we have some good news on it.
It's very very somber day, Jay RATTLFF God bless you.
Appreciate you coming on the show every week and sharing
your stories with us, and I'll look forward to next
Thursday another edition of your media. iHeart Media Aviation Report,
and I hope you and your beautiful bride have a wonderful,
wonderful week.

Speaker 4 (19:06):
Brian, appreciate it, but I very much appreciate you being
there on a daylight today with the job you you
and Joe do, a lot of people needed it, and
you know, on my behalf selfishly, I appreciate everything you're doing.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
Oh, thank you very much. I really really appreciate that. Jay,
take care of my friend. Ay fifty four to fifty
five car City Talk Station. I'm going to go ahead
and read it again. Ken Blackwell on Charlie Kirk's assassination
to demand murder Charlie Kirk, you may think you struck
a blow against a man you disagreed with. You may
think your cowardly act somehow silenced him. But let's make
this very clear.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
You failed.

Speaker 1 (19:37):
You failed because truth does not die with the bullet.
Principles do not bleed out in the street, and a
movement built on conviction is not so fragile that one
violent act can scatter it. You prove something you never
intended to prove, that Charlie's words were powerful enough to
terrify you. You feared him not because he carried a weapon,
because he carried ideas that cut deeper than any weapon

(19:58):
you could have ever wheeled. The light he carried because
it exposed the darkness that you live in. You thought
you could erase his influence. Instead you underlined it. You
thought you could end his mission, instead you multiplied it.
You thought you could make us afraid, Instead you made
us stronger. History is filled with cowards who hid behind
violence when they could get could not win with reason.

(20:19):
Every tyrant who jailed in the center, every fanatic who
silenced the profit, every assassin who tried to erase a leader,
they all shared the same delusion that killing a messenger
kills the message. Time has proven them all wrong, and
time will prove you wrong too, Because Charlie's fight is
not just his, it's ours, and now burns brighter than ever.

(20:39):
His family, his friends, his countless supporters across this country.
We carry his torch. You cannot put it out. You
cannot stop what has already taken root in the hearts
of millions. You wanted to silence a man, instead you
gave voice to a generation. You wanted to stop a movement,
instead you set it on fire. You wanted to strike fear,
instead you revealed your own. We are not afraid of you.

(21:01):
We are not backing down. We're not surrendering our beliefs,
or principles or our courage. So remember this when you
hit in the shadows and pulled the trigger, you did
not prove strength, You proved weakness. You didn't end the mission,
you gave it a new meeting, and you did not
stop Charlie Kirk. He made sure his message will echo
far louder than it ever has before. Charlie's fight is

(21:23):
our fight, His cause is our cause, and we carry
it forward with even more determination, more resolve, and more
unshakable faith than ever before. You failed, and we will
never fail him. Ken Blackwell, brilliant. Thank you so much
for penning that message. Let's follow through with it. Congressman

(21:45):
David's was on. We heard from Jack Atherton on the assassination.
We heard from Congressman Davidson, Alex Treanzafilo, Charles Tassel in
studio talking about well his position in the Trump administration
with the USDA. He's Ohio State's USDA guy now over
in the Rural Development Division. And he talked about the
street rescue. Let's get those guns, those rental guns off

(22:08):
the street. Informations at fifty five KRC dot com. Congressman
David Taylor on the Charlie Kirk and the Child Interstate
Abortion Notification Act and of course Jay Ratliff. It's all
fifty five KRC dot com. Thank you Joe Strecker for
producing the program. Folks, Hug the ones you love, Please
and don't go away. Glennbeck's coming up.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Today's top stories at the top.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Of the hour.

Speaker 2 (22:34):
It's information that matters to me. Fifty five KRS the
talk station. This report is