SAA Captain fired for racist remark
 

a Senior SAA Captain is in the process of being fired for making a racist remark to a ground support technician.:=

What did he call him, a "whitey" or a "cracker"?

If it was a deserved comment, was it racist? It could be a generalization, like say, generally speaking black people are fast runners or say for example, mostly black people fill the jails.
Sometimes facts are misinterpreted as racist when they are of a negative nature as would be in the second example above.
What where the circumstances?

Don't think it matters. We all know that comments are only classified as racist if they come from pale faces. Every other demographic can sprout forth as they please...

I assume this follows an intensive inquiry over several weeks where both sides of the story were evaluated and witnesses interviewed.

What is the latest with this case? Apparently he was found guilty, and is appealing the decision. They were going for a dismissal, as opposed to just demoting him for a period of time. He muist be taking real strain with his whole airline career about to go belly up.

Even if getting all worked up and frustrated, it's best to avoid the nasty "k" word. It's not worth it. Comments like this don't help in the SA we live in today. One needs to move on...

Did he actually use the k-word? If that is the case, then he clearly wasn't thinking, regardless of what the technician might have done or not done. In the world of today its very dangerous to say what one thinks. Everybody is learning how to be a diplomat, some take a little longer than others and some don't learn at all and get one free pass after the other.....
His career won't be lost completely. With his hours and experience he will get another job, but not the same money and he might have to move. Maybe thats a good thing, move somewhere where you have ground support staff who actually take their jobs seriously.

In his defence, it happened when the hot mike was on (by mistake), and in a moment of frustration he was referring to the ground engineer, who happened to be listening in unfortunately.

Gyro Nut, there is truth in your first statement. The problem however is that you want people to move on but policies instated by government attach us to the past. It's not right to ask one group to move on yet another group use the past to their advantage.

If he did use the K word then he deserves to lose his job and be made an example of! No place for neanderthals in this day and age and certainly not in any position of authority!

Deplorable? Most likely, but hardly a hanging offence.

The said Captain, who is a really great guy, made a serious error in judgement and may have to live with the consequences of it for the rest of his life.

He had a hot mike and when they tried to contact the engineer to find out if the chocks were in so that they could release the park brake due to the A340 having notoriously high brake temperatures from a landing and taxi in, they received no response. The Captain then made an unacceptable general comment using the "K" word and the engineer happened to be on the headset when the comment was made.

It is interesting to note that the third pilot was Indian.

The lesson to be learned here is that many white South Africans still freely use the "K" word in general discussion and it is time to eliminate this word and this attitude from our social banter as it is offensive and degrading and is a poor representation of the individuals using it. Next time you hear someone using this word, have the balls to stand up to them and tell them that it is not on.

To me it's different if he used the K word to the guy's face, but it was done in "private", on the flight deck, and the guy over head it through the intercom via the hot mike. He also apologised immediately, but the guy wrote a report about it nevertheless.

Reminds me of living in a communistic country, where you can't use certain langauge against the party in power, for fear of losing your job or your life.

I agree totally though, that the K word is an ugly, outdated word. The irony though, and maybe if there are any from our black community on here can confirm this, but I've heard blacks sometimes call each other the K word.

The feedback is that because he used it in private and generalised the statement that the disciplinary hearing panel, chaired by a white female, thought this to be worse than if he had directed it at the individual.

If the Captain used the K word to describe a black person behaving like a K, then fair play as far as I am concerned. Strange in the USA the N word can only be used by Blacks not whites yet Honkey, Cracker, Raghead, Yid, etc hardly cause a stir. Blacks apear to have Royal Game status on name calling and little else IMHO.

didn't just this same event happen to a SAX captain a few years back at CapeTown...hot mike ooops...

and I believe the SAX captain got a temporary demotion to the right seat ??

grounds to speak to SAAPA/ALPA about this...precedence set

What?
 

What the heck is the K word? Since I am coming to Africa soon can someone provide this word so that i know what it is?

I know about the N word. I also know its OK for americans of african decent to use the word amoust each other. This has always annoyed me. If blacks in the US don't want to hear it they should not be using it.

If this guy looses his job over this, it will be ludicrous ! i mean what he said was in appropriate yes, but it was meant to be a private conversation firstly, secondly why didn't the the offended individual acknowledge the captain in the first instance? so he probably wasn't doing what he was meant to!wouldn't any body get a bit hot under the collar when their 'team mate' aint pulling their wait. and thirdly how could they fire this bloke when one of the most senior government officials in the ANC, yes lovely mista Malema has been running round the country singing roughly translated "kill the white man" and all that happened to him was a slap on the wrist not even an apology.
discipline is needed yes, but to destroy a lively hood over a very hazy and so too often bias one sided issue would be unfortunate... tia

Maybe, just maybe, it could have been the other way round and the technician was called "white trash". Could that happen and the Captain get fired?

The "K" word is from the Arabic "Kafa" meaning a heathen or one who has no God and is therefore a Savage, wheras a beliver in God but not a Muslim is an Infidel. Afrikaaners spell the "K" word "Kaffir" but its pronunciation is more like "Koffer" and some use it in place of "African" I trust this enlightens you?