August 5, 2025 • 9 mins
Aviation Expert Jay Ratliff has the latest travel news including parents that did not have a passport for their son, and left in there to be picked up!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we head over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot
com phone line and check in with our aviation.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Expert and all around good guy.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's j Ratliff and you can find him at jratlift
dot com. Jay, I see there was a groundstop at
Boston Logan International Airport because the wildfire smoke has causing
some visibility problems.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well, you know when you've got Canada with seven hundred
and what fifty or so wildfires that are burning, Yeah,
it can create some problems. And Boston was averaging delays
of I think fifty minutes to an hour yesterday because
of the low visibility that was being created by the
aftermath of those fires. And that's something that you know
(00:43):
is going to impact cities Boston, New York. Is it
that busy Northeast corridor needed even more of a challenge
during the busy summer travel season. Yeah, let's throw that
in there.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
How much does that affect arrivals or departures more the
visibility because I mean they're on instruments for most of
those flights, right then they flip over to visual as
they're coming in to land.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, and what happens is that a lot of times
if it's very bad from a visibility standpoint. It'll come
down to the pilot training or what they're rated for.
And a lot of times we have an easier time
on takeoffs than we do on landings when we have
times of limited visibility like we might have in a
winter storm or something along those lines. But you know,
the bottom line is nothing's going to operate outside of
(01:28):
the safety parameters that the FAA has set and that's
a good thing, which means if most things will be
slowed down a bit. And sadly, with the number of
flights that we have in that busy Northeast corridor, when
you start getting behind, especially early in the morning, all
it does is build up throughout the course of the
day so that the delays become much more problematic in
(01:49):
the afternoon and evening what you had in the morning.
And that's one of the reasons when Sharry and I fly,
we will try to catch the first flight out in
the day, which is a challenge because my wife's not
necessarily a morning but you know, it's the flight that
stands the best chance of being dispatched on time. So
when you've got these kinds of issues, yeah, you're hoping
you're on a NonStop flight and it's early in the day,
(02:12):
so that these types of connection delays that occur don't
to impact your itinery.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm just curious.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I know you're not a pilot, but what kind of
visibility did commercial flights need? They need a mile, they
need five miles, they need six hundred yards. Do you
know off the top of your head what kind of
visibility they require?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Most of the pilots that I've talked to that we
had to deal with at the airport normally half a mile.
They were good to go some less than that from
a visibility standpoint. And of course, the technology that's on
board aircraft, especially in the cockpit, is one of the
things that so many people say, Jay, if it's that good,
why do we have pilots at all? In other words,
because anytime there's a crash and there's an investigation or
(02:52):
a near accident, and it comes down as a contributing
factor among many might have been pilot air well, the
thought is, hey, why not just allow that technology to
take over? Look, I want those men and women in
the cockpit. I want somebody with that vested interest in
landing the airplane safely and there's no way on God's
green Earth we can program that computer for every possible
(03:13):
contingency that might occur. I mean, we had a double
engine failure on the US air Bird Striker a whole
bunch of years ago that had never happened before. So
would you program something that never happened into a computer.
Probably not, and that airplane would have came down and
probably right in the middle of New York City. So
that's one of the reasons that I love automation as
(03:35):
long as it's what the pilots can use and I
want that experience in the flight deck.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, it should simply be a tool, you know, an
asset of the actual human pilot on board. Speaking with
Jay Ratlift, our aviation expert, you can check him out
and if you see anything during your flights and you
want to get an answer, Jay is your go to guide.
Jarratliff dot com United Airlines flight lost power one engine
and they issued it May day and then return to
(03:59):
the Where was this.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Now, I'm trying to remember the exact city. I was
sitting there thinking about the visibility question, making sure I
gave you the right answer, but that when that aircraft
took off out of it. I'd have to check. It
might have been Denver. Excuse me, my memory is completely
blown now with that curveball. But it took off and
lost an engine, and the captain had a declared emergency issue,
(04:25):
made a call, came back in landed, and I'm getting
all these emails from across the country saying, Jay, my gosh,
mayday call. Made a call and it was a Boeing
seven eighty seven. Oh my gosh. Well, these types of
engine failures happen every week where we have an engine
that might malfunction on takeoff, and what happens is either
they will cancel the take off and taxi back to
(04:47):
the gate on the one good engine, or they will
take off and fly on that one good engine and
then come back in land. And sadly, when we have
the kind of I don't know the attention that we
have on and the dreamline and everything else, what you're
looking at is a lot of people that try to
make too much out of it. And I don't want
(05:07):
to ever minimize the anxiety that people have a situation
on a flight and that it took off out a
DC found But I don't want to minimize that. But
the issue is it's business as usual. The airplanes can
fly across the country on one engine without any problem
at all. So as a result, when that takes off,
(05:29):
cruise practice before they take off. Look, this is the
point of the runway where it's the point of no return.
We're taking off and if we have to come back,
here's the procedure we're going to follow. Every time there's
a departure. Before they leave, that's part of their pre
departure checklist. So the crew knows exactly because they practiced it.
If we lose an engine, this is what we're going
to do. They don't have to think, they don't have
(05:51):
to figure out what to do. It's predetermined. Know what
you're going to do with the ball before you get
it type of approach. And that's what makes those flight
cruis as good as they are.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Was the mayday call atypical? Then? Is that what got
people kind of fired up about this?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, And when you hear the air traffic control tape,
it's like, oh, my gosh, the plane is falling out
of the sky, my gosh, and you know, people freak
out and I'm kind of like, well, no, it's not really,
it's just a it's just a it's just a call.
The mayday call itself alerts the FAA that, look, we've
got a problem. We need to come back and clear
the field. In other words, give us priority and let
(06:24):
us land. And a lot of times the last if
you're going to declare emergency or not, and when the
mayday may DA medi call comes out, uh, it's it's
designed for that very purpose to let the air traffic
controllers know they've got a situation and they need to return.
And they did, and they landed, and when they did,
they taxed it right back to the gate. So it's
it's those things that happened hundreds of times a year.
(06:47):
But late when we've had issues with the the Boeing engines,
even though there wasn't a problem with the engine on
the crash that we had, it was a situation of
the fuel being cut off to the engine that caused
the problem. It's still going to make headlines and will
probably for a while. It's like a year ago when
we had the door plug incident on the Last Airlines.
Anytime it was Boeing anything bird strike, it would make
(07:09):
the news, sure because that was what was trending at
the time.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
What's the story with this passport issue? There are some
parents going on vacation and they had a solution to
a problem that, as so many things do now, went
viral and kind of triggered social media.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
What's the story here?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The story is you had a family in an airport
in Spain. They were preparing for their vacation. They get
to the airport and they're told that the ten year
old son his passport is no longer valid. He doesn't
have what he needs to travel. Okay, so the parents
decided to leave him at the airport.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
It seems reasonable.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
In other words, don't don't. That's not gonna a fear,
it's my vacation. So apparently these idiots called a relative
to come pick up their ten year old son. And
as they went, and I guess hopefully the relatives are
going to, you know, catch up and find their the
relative the ten year old at the airport. And most
of us wouldn't let our kids at tend go to
the bathroom by themselves. You know, somebody's gonna walk with them.
(08:09):
But what mindset, I mean, what kind of a And
I can't even use the word parent because that's not
a parent. But who could leave a ten year old
for any length of time, let alone be selfish enough
to say my vacation, I'm not gonna miss that and
then take off and fly it. And obviously the story
(08:29):
went viral for all the obvious reasons. But I'm just
hopeful that there's some really strong laws in Spain that's
going to cause these people to get into a great
deal of trouble, because I can't imagine that now. I've
seen the sad stories. You know, people show up at
the airport with pets and they find out there's an
additional cost, and they walk away from their pet in
(08:50):
an airport, which just breaks my heart. The idea of
doing it with a child is unthinkable. And that's why
you'll never hear me utter those words that so many
people like to utter. I've seen at all. That's such
an as nine comment. Don't ever sell people short. They're
always capable of doing something to surprise you.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You haven't seen it all with these people, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
So we do have the wildfire, smokes and visibility problems,
as we pointed out, any hub delays.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
We should be paying attention to you this morning.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, Landa and Charlotte, if you're connecting through either of
those two airports, Expect some weather delays. Get to the
airport at least your two hours before departure in case
there's any problems, and make sure the airlines have a
way to get a hold of the other than that.
Across the country, other than the northeast issue, that's going
to continue to be a problem. With visibility, the country
looks being pretty good. Jade
As we head over to the Legacy Retirement Group dot
com phone line and check in with our aviation.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Expert and all around good guy.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's j Ratliff and you can find him at jratlift
dot com. Jay, I see there was a groundstop at
Boston Logan International Airport because the wildfire smoke has causing
some visibility problems.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
Well, you know when you've got Canada with seven hundred
and what fifty or so wildfires that are burning, Yeah,
it can create some problems. And Boston was averaging delays
of I think fifty minutes to an hour yesterday because
of the low visibility that was being created by the
aftermath of those fires. And that's something that you know
(00:43):
is going to impact cities Boston, New York. Is it
that busy Northeast corridor needed even more of a challenge
during the busy summer travel season. Yeah, let's throw that
in there.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
How much does that affect arrivals or departures more the
visibility because I mean they're on instruments for most of
those flights, right then they flip over to visual as
they're coming in to land.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Yeah, and what happens is that a lot of times
if it's very bad from a visibility standpoint. It'll come
down to the pilot training or what they're rated for.
And a lot of times we have an easier time
on takeoffs than we do on landings when we have
times of limited visibility like we might have in a
winter storm or something along those lines. But you know,
the bottom line is nothing's going to operate outside of
(01:28):
the safety parameters that the FAA has set and that's
a good thing, which means if most things will be
slowed down a bit. And sadly, with the number of
flights that we have in that busy Northeast corridor, when
you start getting behind, especially early in the morning, all
it does is build up throughout the course of the
day so that the delays become much more problematic in
(01:49):
the afternoon and evening what you had in the morning.
And that's one of the reasons when Sharry and I fly,
we will try to catch the first flight out in
the day, which is a challenge because my wife's not
necessarily a morning but you know, it's the flight that
stands the best chance of being dispatched on time. So
when you've got these kinds of issues, yeah, you're hoping
you're on a NonStop flight and it's early in the day,
(02:12):
so that these types of connection delays that occur don't
to impact your itinery.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
I'm just curious.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I know you're not a pilot, but what kind of
visibility did commercial flights need? They need a mile, they
need five miles, they need six hundred yards. Do you
know off the top of your head what kind of
visibility they require?
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Most of the pilots that I've talked to that we
had to deal with at the airport normally half a mile.
They were good to go some less than that from
a visibility standpoint. And of course, the technology that's on
board aircraft, especially in the cockpit, is one of the
things that so many people say, Jay, if it's that good,
why do we have pilots at all? In other words,
because anytime there's a crash and there's an investigation or
(02:52):
a near accident, and it comes down as a contributing
factor among many might have been pilot air well, the
thought is, hey, why not just allow that technology to
take over? Look, I want those men and women in
the cockpit. I want somebody with that vested interest in
landing the airplane safely and there's no way on God's
green Earth we can program that computer for every possible
(03:13):
contingency that might occur. I mean, we had a double
engine failure on the US air Bird Striker a whole
bunch of years ago that had never happened before. So
would you program something that never happened into a computer.
Probably not, and that airplane would have came down and
probably right in the middle of New York City. So
that's one of the reasons that I love automation as
(03:35):
long as it's what the pilots can use and I
want that experience in the flight deck.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
Yeah, it should simply be a tool, you know, an
asset of the actual human pilot on board. Speaking with
Jay Ratlift, our aviation expert, you can check him out
and if you see anything during your flights and you
want to get an answer, Jay is your go to guide.
Jarratliff dot com United Airlines flight lost power one engine
and they issued it May day and then return to
(03:59):
the Where was this.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Now, I'm trying to remember the exact city. I was
sitting there thinking about the visibility question, making sure I
gave you the right answer, but that when that aircraft
took off out of it. I'd have to check. It
might have been Denver. Excuse me, my memory is completely
blown now with that curveball. But it took off and
lost an engine, and the captain had a declared emergency issue,
(04:25):
made a call, came back in landed, and I'm getting
all these emails from across the country saying, Jay, my gosh,
mayday call. Made a call and it was a Boeing
seven eighty seven. Oh my gosh. Well, these types of
engine failures happen every week where we have an engine
that might malfunction on takeoff, and what happens is either
they will cancel the take off and taxi back to
(04:47):
the gate on the one good engine, or they will
take off and fly on that one good engine and
then come back in land. And sadly, when we have
the kind of I don't know the attention that we
have on and the dreamline and everything else, what you're
looking at is a lot of people that try to
make too much out of it. And I don't want
(05:07):
to ever minimize the anxiety that people have a situation
on a flight and that it took off out a
DC found But I don't want to minimize that. But
the issue is it's business as usual. The airplanes can
fly across the country on one engine without any problem
at all. So as a result, when that takes off,
(05:29):
cruise practice before they take off. Look, this is the
point of the runway where it's the point of no return.
We're taking off and if we have to come back,
here's the procedure we're going to follow. Every time there's
a departure. Before they leave, that's part of their pre
departure checklist. So the crew knows exactly because they practiced it.
If we lose an engine, this is what we're going
to do. They don't have to think, they don't have
(05:51):
to figure out what to do. It's predetermined. Know what
you're going to do with the ball before you get
it type of approach. And that's what makes those flight
cruis as good as they are.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Was the mayday call atypical? Then? Is that what got
people kind of fired up about this?
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, And when you hear the air traffic control tape,
it's like, oh, my gosh, the plane is falling out
of the sky, my gosh, and you know, people freak
out and I'm kind of like, well, no, it's not really,
it's just a it's just a it's just a call.
The mayday call itself alerts the FAA that, look, we've
got a problem. We need to come back and clear
the field. In other words, give us priority and let
(06:24):
us land. And a lot of times the last if
you're going to declare emergency or not, and when the
mayday may DA medi call comes out, uh, it's it's
designed for that very purpose to let the air traffic
controllers know they've got a situation and they need to return.
And they did, and they landed, and when they did,
they taxed it right back to the gate. So it's
it's those things that happened hundreds of times a year.
(06:47):
But late when we've had issues with the the Boeing engines,
even though there wasn't a problem with the engine on
the crash that we had, it was a situation of
the fuel being cut off to the engine that caused
the problem. It's still going to make headlines and will
probably for a while. It's like a year ago when
we had the door plug incident on the Last Airlines.
Anytime it was Boeing anything bird strike, it would make
(07:09):
the news, sure because that was what was trending at
the time.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
What's the story with this passport issue? There are some
parents going on vacation and they had a solution to
a problem that, as so many things do now, went
viral and kind of triggered social media.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
What's the story here?
Speaker 3 (07:25):
The story is you had a family in an airport
in Spain. They were preparing for their vacation. They get
to the airport and they're told that the ten year
old son his passport is no longer valid. He doesn't
have what he needs to travel. Okay, so the parents
decided to leave him at the airport.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
It seems reasonable.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
In other words, don't don't. That's not gonna a fear,
it's my vacation. So apparently these idiots called a relative
to come pick up their ten year old son. And
as they went, and I guess hopefully the relatives are
going to, you know, catch up and find their the
relative the ten year old at the airport. And most
of us wouldn't let our kids at tend go to
the bathroom by themselves. You know, somebody's gonna walk with them.
(08:09):
But what mindset, I mean, what kind of a And
I can't even use the word parent because that's not
a parent. But who could leave a ten year old
for any length of time, let alone be selfish enough
to say my vacation, I'm not gonna miss that and
then take off and fly it. And obviously the story
(08:29):
went viral for all the obvious reasons. But I'm just
hopeful that there's some really strong laws in Spain that's
going to cause these people to get into a great
deal of trouble, because I can't imagine that now. I've
seen the sad stories. You know, people show up at
the airport with pets and they find out there's an
additional cost, and they walk away from their pet in
(08:50):
an airport, which just breaks my heart. The idea of
doing it with a child is unthinkable. And that's why
you'll never hear me utter those words that so many
people like to utter. I've seen at all. That's such
an as nine comment. Don't ever sell people short. They're
always capable of doing something to surprise you.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
You haven't seen it all with these people, all right.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
So we do have the wildfire, smokes and visibility problems,
as we pointed out, any hub delays.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
We should be paying attention to you this morning.
Speaker 3 (09:18):
Yeah, Landa and Charlotte, if you're connecting through either of
those two airports, Expect some weather delays. Get to the
airport at least your two hours before departure in case
there's any problems, and make sure the airlines have a
way to get a hold of the other than that.
Across the country, other than the northeast issue, that's going
to continue to be a problem. With visibility, the country
looks being pretty good. Jade
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