BA Pilot talks about bombing White House on open mike

[William A Bong]

I hear a strong rumour that a BA flight was caught joking about bombing the White House whilst flying in the Washington area on Wednesday. Only problem was that they didn't realise they were transmitting on the RT frequency not intercom.

Suprisingly BA are not too happy about this.

[RoyHudd]

Flight probably busy with despised US passengers, some paying premium fares helping to subsidise the overpaid British Airways crew. Makes me sick. Characteristic of leftie Brits and Europeans, sad to say.:=

[PAXboy]

Or crew more tired and fed up than they should be?

If true, then it ranks in the same category as President Ronald Reagen saying on an open mic, "We start the bombing in 10 minutes."

Guess who will be criticised the greatest?

[Hand Solo]

Assuming its true. Who rattled Roy Hudds cage? Would it have been better if an American had said it?

[Eff Oh]

This is a load of rubbish. Who cares what was said? They didn't actually do it! It was OBVIOUSLY said in jest, not ment to be heard by others, so as not to cause offence. Roy Hudd no need to be so abrasive! Slow news day today?

[serf]

And if pax boarding the Flight had talked in this manner....................................whats' good for the goose..

[Farrell]

It was unintentional albeit embarrassing. However, there's no need to stick it up here to further add to a situation I'm sure the guy would rather forget! :*

[noullet]

It was unintentional albeit embarrassing. However, there's no need to stick it up here to further add to a situation I'm sure the guy would rather forget! :*


Which gets back to the old saying: "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't open your mouth".....

Regards,
jack

[Norman Stanley Fletcher]

Roy Hudd has got it about right - BA are 100% dependent on US routes where transatlantic passengers pay serious money for 'premium service' travel. If you bite the hand that feeds you, the day will come when the zoo visitors find more friendly animals to throw titbits at.

Anti-American sentiment is increasingly fashionable in the UK among trendy-lefty dorks who actually believe all they hear on the BBC. Unfashionable as it may be, I personally believe America to be the greatest ally the UK has ever had. Knowing American sensitivities over this type of thing I am frankly embarrassed. To actually joke in the cockpit about bombing the White House, and worse still to do so whilst in US airspace, is crass buffoonery of the worst order.

Incidentally, people do care what was said in jest - it matters in a big way to Americans and they are the people keeping BA afloat. Foolish words over such a sensitive issue could be disastrous for BA - and their employees will only have themselves to blame if it is.

[jondc9]

I too think that the UK and the US are incredible allies...



it would seem someone needs training in the use of the audio panel


though we all could use that at times.

j

[Lon More]

It's only a rumour folks; four days ago; if it had been true wouldn't the loonies of the American right have pounced on it by now?

[L337]

This is the rumour network.

So before you all shoot BA down in flames because of one employee. Trash the trendy dorks of the left. The BBC. And get all embarrassed. How about waiting for the truth? What ever that may be.

l337

[surely not]

Why does it have to be a loony leftie crew? Are normal people not allowed to have thoughts which doubt the direction of the current US administrations policies. Freedom of Speech? Only if you agree with Norman Stanley and his like it seems :=

I think BA also carries a very large number of other nationalities as well as the US citizens. Seems to me the US Citizens are normally found on the US Carriers, thereby propping up carriers that would be bankrupt and out of business if operating in Europe and without the bolt hole of Chapter 11!

At least the flight crew were only joking about it; unlike those in power in Washington who are fecking up large parts of the world by actually dropping bombs!

That said it must be very embarrassing for the crew

[arem]

Well that will teach the silly sods not to use intercom to somebody whose sat 3 feet away in a not particularly noisy flightdeck - and yes I hated using it in my last few years at BA but the FEW and the biggles brigade were running the roost by then!!!!!!!!!!

[overstress]

Hi arem - I'm one of the overpaid silly sods, ex-biggles brigade and former FEW. We use intercom because it is SOP. Hope this helps. Looking forward to your next posting - not.

[jondc9]

actually threatening the president of the USA is a federal crime...a 14 year old girl was recently questioned for putting on her BLOG words to the effect of doing harm to p. bush.

so, BA uses an intercom between pilots on the same flight deck...that's fine


of course, how many BA planes are fitted with bomb racks these days...probably none


we all know it was a joke

[misd-agin]

Hi arem - I'm one of the overpaid silly sods, ex-biggles brigade and former FEW. We use intercom because it is SOP. Hope this helps. Looking forward to your next posting - not.

You use intercom to talk to a guy 3 feet from you in a modern airline cockpit?

As ex-military folks like to say...YGBSM. :ooh:

[Carnage Matey!]

I'm not ex-mil and I use intercom, but then I never thought there was anything macho about not using one ear of your ANR headset and slowly going deaf.

[Roadtrip]

I think the embarassement alone is enough punishment. Nothing like being a twit, then advertising to the world.

[alibaba]

erm Norm.

The BAaaaa is not 100% based on US PAX figures. Don't know where you got your figures from? :ooh: Important maybe, but not everything. :cool:

US tourists on European city breaks don't particularly use them anymore anyway, unlike other European cabs. :rolleyes:

It has nothing to do with the hand that feeds you as you put it. But everything to do with any criticism not appreciated. Especially associated with this country and its policies as and when foreign critics are at hand. If you are a domestic critic it generally leads to a communist slant and a witch hunt. I think the have been a few books about that though. Is it the 60s or the 21st Century?

Somebody please point NSF to the calendar. :ugh:

It's called democracy, (Not sure if you are used to that?). It means free speech. It isn't always what you might want though..... That’s life I suppose.

If you would like to watch the drivel out of FOX, I am sure a satellite dish can be put up for you whatever the location?

I don't think the flight deck in question meant to broadcast this. They probably were chit chatting idly and innocently IN PRIVATE. Except not that privately! oopps.

I would hate to think that any person or company could use CVR's in anyway they wanted as I think we would all be up to our waist in sh... or sectioned possibly? Some companies actually want to use this data though.

Might not be Birdseed that is guilty? Could be one of many different operators flying in that airspace at that time that might have been responsible? Possibly a VP or even an Ascot? :E I have to agree though, tasteful it is not. I suppose it is like a few crew meals, but not everybody gets them now do they……..

[vapilot2004]

I've got it on good authority twas Virgin Atlantic returning to LHR. :}

Not a good thing to broadcast. Better on the radio than the :eek: IC, I think.









Oh wait a minute - now someone is saying they heard the guilty party was a Dane in a new Citation that got off track on his way to New Jersey.
VHF Q being what it is..... :E

[weasil]

An almost identical incident occurred at my previous airline - US Airways Express (PSA) - we had a british captain working for us who made the same sort of comment as they were flying out of DCA. This guy was not liked by most of the FO's anyway and so the FO he was flying with decided to punish him by calling the FBI! That's right, the feds! This particular captain was arrested shortly thereafter - and lost his job to boot. Last I heard he beat the charges and was suing for his job back. Not sure whatever happened after that.

[DC-Mainliner]

Rediculous to the extreme. Just as joking about this sort of thing carelessly isn't socially or professionally bright, unleashing the KGB on a fellow pilot that was making a joke is also not the sharpest tactic to take. That's not a smart precedent to set.

[exvicar]

Roy Hudd

Muppet. Are you suggesting that an airline actually makes money on its routes rather than relying on billions of dollars of anti competitive aid to prop up an airline in Chapter 11? How novel! If there was slightly less aid & market forces were allowed to work, think you would find we would all be making a bit more money.

[flybywire]

Or crew more tired and fed up than they should be?

Exactly....or maybe p:mad:d off at the 100th new ridiculous security measure in force for crew....probably they were thinking of bombing the white house with toothpaste? Or with a bottle of Higland Spring Water?! :=

Whoever did that, if it is true, was probably frustrated by what the job has become these days through no fault of their own. This kind of conversation, even if as a joke, can only be the fruit of frustration and it is not uncommon given the present times. Silly them to transmit it through though!!!
I still laugh when I go through security with a crew of young attractive girls, and security takes off our lipsticks, facial wipes etc...we always joke with them that if we wanted to, a bunch of girls could do much more to let's say "distract" the pilots from their duties than anybody else.....we do not need any other weapons ;)

Please :rolleyes: ....give me some proper, juicy rumours now...

[apaddyinuk]

Any excuse for a BA bashing thread!

[flybywire]

Flight probably busy with despised US passengers, some paying premium fares helping to subsidise the overpaid British Airways crew. Makes me sick. Characteristic of leftie Brits and Europeans, sad to say.:=

And from a supposed gossip you make up all of that?
Ever thought of working in politics?!?
:ugh:

FBW :yuk:

PS:Paddy you are so right...and whether this is true or not it could have happened on any airline, even in Monarch.

[jondc9]

Just wondering:


Has anyone actually found a press account of this alleged incident? If so, please post.

And, just for the heck of it, if you know someone plotting against the president of the US, don't call the FBI...the Secret Service is the one to call (part of US Treasury dept.)


also just wondering:

could the alleged pilot involved in this alleged incident be the same pilot alleged to have flown the 3 engine 747, and just had a bit to get off his chest about things US?

And to the brilliant one , thinking that US airlines are propped up by the govt., any help after 9/11 was still too little and too late. Too many pilots and the other good folk who make an airline run have taken mamouth cuts to keep 'em flying. If airlines are competitive, its on the backs of the workers.

[BANANASBANANAS]

I knew an RAF VC10 Captain who gave a 5 minute arrival "PA" to Hong Kong (Kai Tak) Approach in the 1980s. It can happen to anyone guys. I guess the moral of the story is to double check your i/c selections before discussing anything contentious!:ok:

[misd-agin]

I knew an RAF VC10 Captain who gave a 5 minute arrival "PA" to Hong Kong (Kai Tak) Approach in the 1980s. It can happen to anyone guys. I guess the moral of the story is to double check your i/c selections before discussing anything contentious!:ok:

Stuck mike causes it also.

We have no idea what the comment was, in what context, or if it's even true.

[jondc9]

dear bananasbananas


One of the many reasons I have such respect for douglas planes over others is this...

the MIC for the PA system is a huge telephone like thing. One must pick up a completely different instrument (than the RT mic), press a button/switch more than 3 feet away to actively address the passengers.

Unless one is used to calling approach control on the telephone, it would be unlikely to make the VC10 boo boo,

and if BA insists on using the intercom (not a bad idea), why not an always open (hot) intercom(pilot to pilot) system, interrupted only by RT ptt?

[Lon More]

It can happen to anyone guys.

In more than 35 years in aviation I must have heard this at least once a year.
Two sorts of pilots?
Those who have done this and those about to do it?

[G--SPOT]

If this was true, am sure a couple of F-15's would have been sent to intercept.
Before spouting a complete load of sh*t, why not wait for some facts!

[Airbubba]

I've never been too keen about chatting over the intercom in a transport jet cockpit. A couple of the females where I work want to call V1, rotate over the interphone so they can hear it through their designer headphones. Reaching for a mic button on the yoke or the panel at that phase of flight is a little distracting in my opinion. And yes, I have used interphone in years past in commuter and military aircraft.

Some years ago a Delta captain was fired for, among other things, inadvertantly using nautical language over the PA while sitting at the gate. He was about to make an announcement when the probationary (i.e. low paid) FE attempted to reimbuse him for a meal the captain had generously bought. With the mike still keyed, the pax heard "Here, take your G-- D--- money, I don't want it!"

A few weeks ago I heard a Continental pilot give a long PA brief about the weather and sun and fun at Fort Lauderdale. He was transmitting on guard coming out of EWR so he got a lot of feedback on his performance.

[Eff Oh]

Any large transport aeroplane I have flown, the intercom can be locked on by the switch on the control column. I've both used it as SOP in a company and not used it, never had any problems either way. There is a hell of a lot of cr@p being posted on this site recently! :mad:

[Airbubba]

Any large transport aeroplane I have flown, the intercom can be locked on by the switch on the control column.

Maybe on the ones you've flown but I've never seen this on Boeings and Airbuses.

But, it may be spec'ed out that way at some carriers, I'll take a closer look at the yoke when I go back to work.

[Propellerhead]

On a 737 you can lock the interphone on. The advantage of using the intercom is you can use ANR headsets which stops pilots going deaf! The 737 is NOT a quiet cockpit at 300kts!!!!

[Eff Oh]

Airbubba
I fly the B757/B767. I can assure you, it is there!

[Big Kahuna Burger]

A locked intercom button is a customer option on both makes

[hec7or]

Whatever was said unintentionally over the air was probably only highlighting how easy it would be to destroy a large building using the tools of the trade, ie an aeroplane, rather than smuggling airside something far less effective in one's socks!

[overstress]

Airbubba. BA's 57 747-400s have intercom lock buttons, unless I've been hallucinating or read the FCOM wrong... :} :}

Everyone else: we use ANR headsets to help prevent hearing loss. Our SOPs tell us to do it, so we do it.

perhaps a bit more professional than swinging a fist mike in an arc by the cord? :hmm: :hmm:

[Airbubba]

A locked intercom button is a customer option on both makes

Thanks, that makes sense. I've bumped almost every switch and button over the years but I just couldn't remember that one. And, there may be a little switch to lock on the interphone on the comm selector panel, seems like I've used hot mike in the sim with googles and masks on. Anyway, I've never seen much use of interphone in the cockpit in recent years at the few places I've worked.

There was the old trick of putting the FE on O2, and convincing a new flight attendant to come up to the cockpit to talk with the space shuttle (played by the FE on intephone through the mask). Don't think I'd try that one in these politically correct post-911 times. Of course, it's getting hard to find FE's as well...

The only audio switch I use on the yoke is a rocker switch with the top part for radio and the bottom part for interphone. Or, is it the other way around, I never could remember.:)

[Eff Oh]

The only audio switch I use on the yoke is a rocker switch with the top part for radio and the bottom part for interphone. Or, is it the other way around, I never could remember.
That is the switch we are refering to. It activates the intercom (bottom part) and the interphone depending on fit, if FLT INTERPHONE selected on overhead audio panel.

[Flintstone]

Reminds me of the time I followed a Speedbird callsign from London to Paris.
He had the archetypal plum in the mouth accent (just to satisfy the anti-BA brigade in here) and was always transferred from sector to sector at the same time as us.

On one such handover the french controller (in heavily accented English) gave him about half a dozen instructions all at once. Way too much information in one go and we expected him to muff it. There was a brief pause while he took a deep breath and then read it all back, word for word. "Bravo" said my colleague and I to each other in grudging admiration.

The shine went off it though when a few seconds later we heard [Public School Voice]"D'you know, six months ago eye wouldn't hev understood a word of thet"[/Public School Voice]

[fxbat]

“”Anti-American sentiment is increasingly fashionable in the UK among trendy-lefty dorks who actually believe all they hear on the BBC.””
I agree.
Don’t knock us yanks, we have about as much say in are governments foreign policy as you brits do with your immigration policies. We are all in the same boat (or aircraft) we just go to work every day and try to provide for are families.
Contrary to popular belief your average yank does not sit around trying to figure out how to screw the rest of the world.
Are airline careers are going down the toilet, are taxes are out of control, the US dollar isn’t worth the paper it is printed on and are political system is totally corrupt.
Top that off with the fact that you are hated by 85% of the people on the planet for things that are out of your control. And maybe you can see why we have no tolerance for American haters.
P.S. if you haven’t done a pa or at least started to, over the active freq. you are very lucky.

[rodthesod]

I still cringe with embarrassment when I remember a long turnround at BFS about 10 years ago with a First Officer I'd known for many years. Neither of us wore a headset and we were just chatting while we waited for the freight to arrive. I'm afraid the conversation drifted to girls we'd known etc. Eventually we got on our way and just before leaving tower frequency the crews of BA and BMA voiced their approval of one of the ex-girlfriends I'd not named but described in intimate detail. The aircraft had a hand mike stowed half way down the column and my FO, who had swivelled in his seat, had had his knee firmly wedged against the Tx trigger switch.

[The Controlller]

All

I think you find that it was a BA freighter ????

[3Greens]

No such thing. GSS operate on BEHALF of BA using largely GSS crews - with the odd BA secondee in the LHS - .

[The Controlller]

3greens
You will find they have BA flight numbers ?

[Gypsy]

As far as the original issue is concerned, if true it will just be the latest but not the last of a long line of embarrassing whoopsies (by pilots of all nationalities) on the RT and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

As far as accusations of left wing Brits goes, if that is the price of coming from a country that isn't xenophobic about foreigners and doesn't practice torture on those of a different religeon and politics to us, then I'll live with that tag.

[Lon More]

Surprised no-one's brought this (http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=249410) up, seems even the Americans can make mistakes:p

BTW, In that thread it's treated as a joke

[CarltonBrowne the FO]

I have never transmitted a passenger announcement over the RT- yet!
I've read back a few clearances into the cabin though...:O

[jondc9]

sam white:

bush is an ass (on a good day...at least his policies are ass like) and America is the land of free speech...not neccessarily on the radio though with a plane that could be used as a weapon.

...does anyone know if this really did happen or is it still a rumor?

[jondc9]

janzpeed


welcome to the club...censorship...is that cricket?

either have everyone given they're say, or shut down pprune.

[SILLY GOOSE]

Imagine if the flight was with an ARAB crew what would the outcome be!!!!

[jondc9]

Norman S.

Thanks for the kind words about America. I have high regard for the UK and have expressed that elsewhere on this forum (which has been a little censored to truly be a free expression of aviation thoughts).

Many of us in America knew that Bush and his policies were wrong for the world and America.

More of us know now that BUSH and his views have been about as out of whack as a 747-400 with two right wings.


Had 600 votes been found for Al Gore in Florida during the 2000 election our world would probably be at peace...at least much better off than it is now. And Americans even more secure against attack.


Had the state of Ohio gone for Sen. Kerry in 2004, I think the UK and US would largely be out of Iraq by now.


We have what we call "mid term" elections coming up in America this november. Not for president, but it will allow Americans to speak their mind. I hope you , Norman, keep a close eye on it.

I do think you might be wrong about China's century. But that will be for history to decide.

Long ago, a famous band leader is credited as saying: a sudden thought strikes me, let us swear eternal friendship. a piece of music by another great composer took its cue from that thought and it is called, "hands across the sea". Later, Sr. Winston Churchill also spoke magnificently about the special bond between america and the uk.

all the best, and I would rather have a plane from the UK accidently talk about bombing the white house in jest, than anyone else!

jon

[jondc9]

NSF

I agree with you , pprune and censorship MAY COST DANNY and his staff some Pounds in LOST revenue...until PPRUNE is FREE SPEECH, I am boycotting all advertisers!

j

[bubbers44]

We make a lot of mistakes here in the USA but I think we have helped more than hindered making this a better place to be for everyone. Hopefully the future isn't going to show us an alternative to what exists now.

[Simtech]

I think that the locking intercom trigger on the yoke is compulsory on British-registered aircraft. One of the sims I work on came over from the States; it didn't have the locking facility so we had to add it as part of the work required to get CAA approval for British crews to train on the device.

[Q400 Pilot]

A pal of mine broadcast his salary to London control. As we work for Flybe, that was really embarrassing!

[classic crew]

Sim tech wrote,

I think that the locking intercom trigger on the yoke is compulsory on British-registered aircraft. One of the sims I work on came over from the States; it didn't have the locking facility so we had to add it as part of the work required to get CAA approval for British crews to train on the device.

I can think of a British registered B747-400 Freighter crew that wishes it had locking intercom switches! The ones we operate do not have locking switches.

[sugden]

If this story is for real (and I doubt it) it is clearly a joke. Not to everyone's taste, but that doesn't turn it into a threat.

So long as we get to the destination safely and in one piece, then the job is done.