As a non brit , limey , nigel - whatever you want to call it . I find the brits to be way more racially tolerent that their european neighbours such as france , belgium and germany - how many foreigners work for BA ? Hundreds I would imagine , how many work for Lufty , Air France or KLM ? I think they like to keep the bloodlines pure . I think this BA pilot may have had a sense of humour failure . I never have any issues when an inbred nigel calls me a thick paddy .
Well thank God common sense is alive and well in the typing pool of the "Independent".
As a Driver's Airframe for some 30 yrs and being a 3rd generation driver,pilots are not racist, what pilots detest are time wasters, pencil necks, jobs worths, etc. It generally never occurs that one of the previously stated may be of a different creed or colour. What hits all the right buttons(unlike my typing) is the character trait. But just to stoke the fire .....................having witnessed an row between 2 gents from the sub continent...from gent who had lost the row to t'other........."you filthy black indian!" Go figure! Happy days Alwayz
The gentleman concerned is not your typical Nigel. He is allegedly very left of centre, has served as a left winger in local government in Scotland and I seem to remember certain of his comments caused a problem within Balpa a few years ago.
I suspect he has his own agenda on this. And I believe he could well be in contravention of Staff Regulations regarding unauthorised contact with the media.
Last edited by beerdrinker : 26th April 2008 at 10:56.
Thousands, as far as I know ( AF ) almost every station manager nowadays is a " local ", a lot of different nationalities represented among pilots and cabin crew as well as ground staff. Guess what ? We even employ british pilots as well as japanese, belgian, italian, irish and .................well yes, french too. Bloody nuisance these french !! As to LH ?? Dutch, Aussies ..etc, le list is long and distinguished. I've just subscribed to " The Indenpendent " sounds like a good read !
Pressman, you want to get your facts right or be forever silent !
Utter drivel and typical of the Indie to splash it across the front page; it must rate as number 565,498 on the most unimportant news item on the planet today. I note that Mr Maughan is resident north of the border - is he a Pict, perchance?
Everybody is racist to a greater or lesser extent. Why Fisk decided this group of workers deserved an outing more than any other is a mystery known only to Mr Fisk himself. Are the truck drivers or accounts clerks of the UK not deserving of having their opinions aired?
Anyway, aren't there more important things to put on the front page?
The world must be quiet today!
I am a BA pilot, I have been for many years, and I have flown with hundreds of pilots on thousands of flights. I do not recognise the allegations that Mr Maughan has made against me and my professional colleagues.
The people I work with are entirely representative of a cross section of the public you would meet on the street. There are personalities of many creeds, races, and cultures within. I have never come across an instance of racial intolerance in BA.
What Mr Maughan has not made clear is that he is a candidate for Scottish Labour, and has stood unsuccessfully for the constituency of Perth and Perthshire North where his last result was third in the General Election of 2005, where he lost to the Scottish Nationalist Party.
I resent having my name dragged through the mud for political purposes. I resent the smear on my profession and my colleagues in this most unjust article. What a treacherous deed at a time such as this when the public need no further cause to hate BA.
This is a very upsetting slur on the pilots of British Airways, who work daily to salvage some dignity and quality from the basket case of the operation we are forced to endure.
Bigotry, racism amd prejudice are part and parcel of human nature. The issue is how you deal with these traits in a civilised society. There is, in my mind, no better solution than having a good sense of humour.
Query to Jim Forster:
So how many passengers did BA fly to Lagos on BA075 on 27 March ?
Sounds like a public relations disaster even before Robert Fisk came aboard (excuse the pun).
And is it correct that Salman Rushdie is banned for life from flying BA ??
well said mick and i wholeheartedly agree. having also served as a BA pilot for many years i can only say that my own experience is very different to the one described in this article. BA is a culturally diverse organisation and tolerance to all cultures,not only other races,is prevalent. there will always be the rare exception as mr.maughan has found out over the course of a 30 year career with BA..that is probably the case in all walks of life and all parts of society. if mr.maughan felt strongly enough to brief the press it's a shame he didn't feel that he should resign from BA first.
Was a BA customer for years, endless Gold Cards (worth very little in perks if travelling in Biz or First in any case). Didn't find much in the way of racism in millions of BA miles, loads of condescension though !, don't agree with all of Fisks article but can declare that apparently being something of an inconvenience to the airline as a paying pax led me to take most of my business to LH (Star) and Emirates. Never mind, don't suppose BA will miss me, hardly seemed to notice I was there in the first place.
Reminds me a lot of a bluntie gripe in the RAF, "RAF would be a lot better place if it wasn't for all these bloody aeroplanes"....seems to have morphed BA style in to "This would be a brilliant airline if it wasn't for all these bloody passengers"
If being racist means mild resentment at having to fly the invading hordes into LHR etc. as paying customers, I will forgive our friends at BA this minor indiscretion - never met a bad Nigel yet ...
What Mr Maughan has not made clear is that he is a candidate for Scottish Labour, and has stood unsuccessfully for the constituency of Perth and Perthshire North where his last result was third in the General Election of 2005, where he lost to the Scottish Nationalist Party.
Well that explains allot. Another cheap wannabe politician. Vote for me and I will do anything for publicity. He should be ashamed.
Two things I hate...Being called 'Flight Deck' and being called something i'm not by someone who doesn't know me. Normally the ill informed, such as the media. I'm afraid this winds me up.
I'm in a very fortunate position of working along side some of the most professional and down to earth people in the industry at BA and this article IMHO is completely wrong.
I would be lying if I said i've not heard of any racism in 2 years at BA, but I assure you I can count them on one hand! (Normally the company PR dept force feeding me how great at diversity and equality we are. I DON'T CARE, in my book the best person for the job gets it. Not that we are looking for a new head of blah blah, oh yea, must be of asian background for our stats.)
When I worked in a bar for 6 months I heard more racism in 1 day.
. . British Airways pilot reveals today the startling levels of casual racism in the flagship UK company . .
Captain Doug Maughan . . . says that derogatory remarks about race by his colleagues are so common they are treated as normal.
. . with a large party of Saudis on board . . "In the cruise, my captain suddenly embarked on an extraordinary rant about 'rag-heads'. He got the word out twice before I stopped him by explaining he was going to be short of a first officer for the return sector if he carried on."
Mr Maughan, 53, . . is planning a protest at this year's annual shareholders' meeting.
Captain Maughan clearly cares not a whit for attempting to bring his employer into disrepute at this delicate time. As a failed Labour candidate for Perth & North Perthshire he certainly has a political axe to grind and I would be very careful of any comment made in his presence especially with witnesses present, including the CVR.
I pity his crews, especially the First Officer.
How would you have dealt with his threat to his captain?
I wonder what effect his attitude has on flight safety?
If TCP is reading this, perhaps you'd like to invite him for 'full and frank discussions over cocktails'.
What they didn't say was:
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