John McCain’s eldest son is an American Airlines pilot:
Doug McCain has been a pilot with American Airlines since 1990. He currently flies as a First Officer on the Boeing 777 out of JFK International Airport. Prior to American Airlines, he flew the A6-E Intruder in The United States Navy. While in the Navy, he deployed twice to the Mediterranean Sea aboard the USS America CV-66 and aboard the USS Eisenhower CVN-69. He made 256 carrier landings including 88 at night.
And many of the airline pilots I know at AA say Mr. McCain senior has little good to say about airline pilots.
Maybe he was turned down at one of those AA interviews we all loved so much.
While McCain likes to waive the flag and say how patriotic minded he is. He was quick to slap airline pilots as “selfish and unpatriotic” during labor negotiations of 2000.
McCain was proven completely wrong in the wake of the 9-11 attacks, as airline pilots were instrumental in rebuilding public confidence in our aviation infrastructure. Airline pilots climbed back into those cockpits with fear and uncertainty still widespread throughout the nation. They help establish protocol and procedures to protect the public….guns in the cockpit, air marshals, aircraft inspections, etc.
The sacrifices airline pilots took after the attacks was anything but “selfish and unpatriotic”. Yet, we’ve yet to hear McCain apologize for those remarks. Airline pilots answered our nation’s patriotic call. Very few and the management ranks can say the same.
Airline management’s nationwide intentionally kept capacity bloated beyond the reasonable expectations of supply and demand, as many airlines flew empty airplanes in a costly attempt to preserve “market share”. The consequences to the industry were predictable and devastating.
Airline pilots became senior partners in sharing the losses management’s capacity decisions created but they became junior partners in the recovery.
McCain should take note of the management’s behavior during the crisis and after. It is clear who the “selfish and unpatriotic” players in the airline industry are. It is certainly NOT our highly skilled airline pilots.
Rob, V: I’m with you.