The pilot in question accidentally broadcast a hate-filled tirade bashing the appearance of female flight attendants over a Houston airport frequency on March 25, tying up the frequency for several minutes and making it inaccessible to air traffic controllers.
In the recorded conversation with his co-pilot, the Southwest Airlines pilot complained extensively, in a derogatory manner, about the attractiveness of female flight attendants he would meet at bars.
The pilot describes the women as “a continuous stream of gays and grannies and grandees” to his co-pilot. “I just wouldn’t want anyone to know if I had banged them … now I’m back in Houston, which is easily one of the ugliest bases ,” he continues.
Air traffic controllers alerted the FAA on March 25 and sent the tape to Southwest Airlines. Local 2 Investigates, a Houston-based news station, pushed the FAA, under the Freedom of Information Act, to release a copy of the tape to the station. The FAA released the tape and Local 2 has posted an uncut version of the rant online.
The FAA also issued the following statement to Local 2:
“On March 25, 2011, about two-and-a-half minutes of conversation that included offensive language and disparaging characterizations of certain groups and individuals was transmitted on an FAA air traffic control frequency as the result of a stuck microphone in an aircraft cockpit. An air-traffic controller in the Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center alerted all of the airplanes on the frequency to check for a stuck microphone and indicated that the conversation being broadcast was inappropriate over the air. The FAA de termined that the...
