Southwest pilot’s profane rant about California’s Bay Area ‘liberals’ caught on audio
A Southwest Airlines pilot was caught on a hot mic in an expletive-laden rant against the California Bay Area population, calling them “liberal f----.”
In a rant recorded on March 13 over Mineta San Jose International Airport’s air traffic control scanner, an unidentified pilot can be heard delivering a rant, according to travel blog One Mile at a Time.
The pilot is heard in the recording calling residents of the Bay Area “weirdos” driving “Hyundais” and speaking disparagingly about the area, among other comments.
The profane audio is archived at Live ATC, which live-streams air traffic control audio transmissions. The comments begin around the 21-minute mark.
A Southwest Airlines spokesperson confirmed to SFGate that the pilot is an employee of the company but didn’t identify them, saying Southwest is “fully addressing the situation internally.”
“Our corporate culture is built on a tenet of treating others with concern and dignity and the comments are inconsistent with the professional behavior and overall respect that we require from our employees,” the spokesperson said. “This situation was an isolated incident involving a single Employee and not representative of the nearly 60,000 hardworking, respectful People of Southwest Airlines.”
A Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesperson told TV station Kron4 in a statement: “FAA regulations prohibit airline pilots from talking about subjects that are unrelated to safely conducting their flight while taxiing and while flying below 10,000 feet altitude.”
“The FAA is investigating communications that an airline pilot made while taxiing at Mineta San Jose International Airport last week,” the statement reads. “The FAA also reported the incident to the airline.”
Judina Trade, who flew back to the Bay Area on Thursday, told ABC7 News, “I think it’s a good thing that the aircraft did not hear that because I would be very scared to hear a pilot saying that. Especially with everything that’s been going on.”
Councilman Raul Peralez, whose district includes San Jose and the airport, told the station: ”It was extremely disheartening to hear our largest air carrier — to hear one of their employees — their pilots speak so disparagingly about the San Jose area.”
“It’s one thing to be hearing peoples’ authentic opinions,” he continued. “I think they’re entitled to those opinions. I think in this case, this person is completely generalizing and completely wrong.”
This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 8:57 AM with the headline "Southwest pilot’s profane rant about California’s Bay Area ‘liberals’ caught on audio."