She was divorced in 2015 after 28 years of marriage. :(

She's been with United since the late 1980's according to my sources. That would put her in the early EEOC hires with the Frasca trainer interview at Stapleton.

She's 54 with a daughter and a son from the marriage and lives near Sacramento. Her father flew for Pan Am back in the glory days and her son is in Air Force flight training.

I would suggest that grooming and uniform standards have not been consistently enforced for females at U.S. airlines. Any comment on appearance or hairstyle can be spun into a harassment claim from what a male supervisory pilot told me a few years ago. He seemed to speak from experience.

Anyway, she was in civilian clothes. But I still wouldn't wear flip-flops to work, even to check my crew mail, much less to command an airliner. I've sure had to find a phone booth to change into a uniform a time or two over the years when I was a commuter.

Some ops manuals I've used actually do have a procedure for operating a revenue flight in civilian attire with authorization. Don't know about United.

My last employer insisted that all positioning flights were in uniform, solved any potential problems regarding choice of civilian clothes and kept the crew sober!

this incident raises the question of personal health and a company's REAL attitude towards it, not the fluffy "we'll look after our staff" PR spin.

I'm not referring to UAL, don't know how they would treat this. There are many people out there who expect that there employer would suspend them immediately, without pay and would make every effort to terminate them asap, rather than work together to find a mutually acceptable solution.

This leads to situations where pilots are flying when they should not be.

Before anyone shoots me down, not all employees have the luxury of union representation or a sympathetic management.

Gate agents are supposed to check id's. They know who the operating crew is.

you mean there are human beings at the pointy end of the plane and that they can suffer from mental illness (stress, anxiety, depression, PTSD etc..) how can that even be possible?! surely these pilots are infallible demi-gods?! and that folks is what is wrong with our industry and regulators the world over. A total failure to recognise the weakness of the human condition and to accept that pilots are just as likley to suffer from the same mental health issues as the general populus (1:3 get depression and or other mental illnesses). Pilots under pressure not to put the hand up and get the help they need due to Company pressure (loss of job) or Regulator pressure (loss of licence/medical) so they either seek private help below the radar and keep it hidden or soldier on without help and have a total meltdown or drive it into the ground. There are some good, caring companies and some good regulators that are being proactive in this area but the balance is far too much towards the other end and its very worrying. Before anyone beats me up, I'm just stating some facts here - it's a very complex and emotive issue and I don't really know what the solution is but the status quo is a 'swamp' which is a breeding ground for these types of incidents to continue. The fact is, and anyone who has held a medical certificate on this thread knows, it is very easy to hide these kinds of problems from an AME and with an unforgiving industry and regulatory environment, where loss of licence and career is likely, there is a great incentive to do so. We don't need 'loonies' up front that can potentially crash an aircraft and kill all on board but at the same time, we need an industry and regulatory environment that can have a 'grown-up' discussion and come up with some real solutions to these problems.....

Very well said bluesideoops.

First thing I noticed. Who was that person on the IC and how did she access airside?

Shame she took her issues to work so publicly but my heart goes out to her, I can empathise and I hope she gets the help she needs.


Divorcing after 28 years is brutal, I know from personal experience.

There are peer assistance groups that offer confidential assistance to pilots PAN - Peer Assistance Network, with some basic info & resources and info on the page.

This model is quite successful and has been going since the early 90's. The only person who truely understands all the pressures and medical licensing issues is another pilot, not involved with the union, management or regulator on a strictly confidential basis.

PM me for info.

Companies are heartless bar stardians that why I made this comment.
If more compassion existed in business there would be less fatigue, less mental health issues, less divorce, less etc etc.
But the heartless kings, the accountants are running the show now.

Heartfelt sympathy to this person. Divorce is really horrible, and stress is easy to miss, believe it or not.

The really sad thing is that she did not feel that there was anyone she could talk to: Her Union, her manager, her HR department, her occupational health office, her AME, her doctor.

Companies need to understand that the way they are running airlines these days is leading to vastly increased stress on aircrew's lives. Therefore, there needs to be some way that an employee can talk to a suitably trained person if need be - and be listened to confidentially and sympathetically. That person doesn't necessarily need to be the person's manager - they could be the source of the stress - so there needs to be other people in a company that a person could go to and talk to confidentially.

I went to my doctor after having not done very well in a SIM once. I told him I didn't know what was wrong with me and why I was performing so badly. He asked me some questions and then on the spot, he signed me off work for two weeks for stress. I had no idea that I was even stressed.

.

Man or woman, we all need our hands holding at some time. Maybe her problem was that she couldn't find anyone to talk to. Someone who would listen to her and tell her not to go to work until she gets a few things sorted. The thing is she cared enough about her passengers to tell them she was having a problem. It is just a shame for her that she lost the plot when she did.

What is clear is that whatever processes and procedures they have to support pilots before they get this far did not work in her case. As for the future, we will now see how good her employer and union are when they work together to get her back onto the straight and narrow. I truly hope she is given the help she needs and is able to get back to work in the near future, if that is what she wants.

Ain't that the truth.
I think that sleep disruption exacerbates any other problems that are common in people's private lives. We have more sleep disruption now in Airline flying than ever before.

Trouble is it is now the norm to self posn into your base. A well known airline in the U.K. Even has someone positioning in from Vancouver prior to operating along haul sector which frankly is a joke. Plenty position in from France.
Until pilots stop shooting themselves in the foot. (Complaining about fatigue & rostering whilst the above continues) Not much is going to change & more incidences of " burn out" will occur.

Going slightly off topic but please, not that old one chestnut again - take a look at the map...my door to door journey from France to LHR is probably less in time and distance than that of people who commute by road or train from Manchester, Leeds etc, and I don't do any of the driving. Knowing our lot if they forced everybody to live in Longford they would then go to EASA/CAA and ask for approval for longer FDPs.

Back on topic, we need need to be aware of stress, and things like sleep issues creeping up on people but I don't think it's something that can be solved by increasing the number of rules in the rule set....as PM said: "Man or woman, we all need our hands holding at some time. Maybe her problem was that she couldn't find anyone to talk to." and I absolutely agree. I've certainly seen a couple of male colleagues who have come unglued due stress, and we as a group can be awfuly bad at asking for assistance when we need it....

I for one wish the lady a speedy and full recovery.

Wiggy
Commuting to LHR in the rush ours is probably easier from France than Camberley Maidenhead Amersham and numerous other common aircrew locations in UK (ok a bit tongue in cheek I know)

I will go back to my original point that i am surprised at the lack of empathy some ehre show for someone who could hardly be more 'one of your own' as flight crew with generations either side of her involved with flying and her clearly ahving had a fine career up to date. If those attitudes are fairly common in the US pilot community (and I am not saying they are) then it is hardly surprising the poor woman 'lost it' with a divorce after all that time god alone knows what the fiancial consequences might have been and maybe she saw herself facing some fiancial hardship close to the end of her career as a result along with all the other stresses.

As for crews pitching up in casual clothes,operating crew not being gate checked etc, it seems completely out of step with all the so called security checks claimed for pax and crew these days .

Anyway I think it is above everything a very sad story and speaks volumes for the increasing heartless species Homo Sapiens has become

Sad story
 

Great sympathy for her. Divorce after long marriage a huge stressor. Wish there were some good reliable solution foe her and United. Unfortunately, best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Impossible to know if such could or would ever happen again to this woman. Thoughts and prayers are with her and what sounds like a fine family.

Gusz said:

Yep sure, the emphasis being on "supposed". Having seen it at first hand more than once, things can get a little lax at times, especially on domestic flights and when the gate agents are busy dealing with multiple pax at the gate desk.

Divorce after any length of marriage is a huge stressor.

It was being lax about security on domestic flights that lead to 9-11 ,

Yep. My first was after 18 years, and as someone said earlier, the job helped keep my sanity. Not so lucky with the second. The absolute is imminent, after 26 years, and with no job to take the strain, it's not easy. Good luck to the lady, and any others of you out there who are stressing.

I would dispute that tbh. Certain items were not restricted at that time, nor were FD doors required to be locked. I may be wrong, but no regulations at that time would have prevented 911. Much changed after that event.

What do you want the companies to do? Have an annual psych eval for pilots? The unions would be up in arms. This issue is combination of protectionism from the unions where their mantra is "no pilot needs to be psych tested regularly " to the companies not wanting to push the issues lest we find out publicly that a large % of pilots have been flying with mental issues bad enough to ground them. That would look smashing the Daily Mail and New York Post headlines.

I have sat next to guys that would keep a team of psychiatrists busy for a week. Ask them if they've considered getting help and they insist they don't have a problem, everyone else in the world is the problem. Have a quick chat with the office and while they know very well the person in question they don't want to take the first step to intervene. Pro standards sees the same people over and over,yet they only want a group hug. It is the elephant in the room up until they show up in civvies and flip flops and crater their career.

The Southwest Captain that took the plane from the FO below 200' and collapsed the nose gear was reported in the NTSB investigation to have been one of the most highly "avoid pairing with" Captains at Southwest. The company had the data but chose not to engage. Her peers were speaking with their bids and directly to the office but it fell on deaf ears.

Unions and management need to advocate adding psychological screening added to the medical. There are far too many future cases out there to keep sweeping mental health under the rug.

Some of the comments in this thread show a lack of understanding of how stress and a lack of sleep can effect normal people like you. You don't have to have a permanent mental illness to have an episode like this, it can happen to anyone.

I worked with someone for several years who appeared very much in control of their lives and was an outstanding employee. Then one day someone said something relatively harmless and their world fell in. It turned out that they had more going on in their lives then we knew about. A sympathetic employer, a bit of counselling and a break from work and they were back to normal again.

The professionals were keen to point out that the person was no more prone to a recurrence than any other employee. They pointed out that if employers fire people that have such an event then others are less likely to seek help when they find themselves in a similar situation.

a lot of UA Capt's have had multiple divorces and have never done anything like this. Rule #1 is that when a pilot is under severe stress it is their professional responsibility to walk away from the flight. Your personal life takes a back seat to your responsibility that you have towards the pax. This incident puts a black stain on the profession.

As a retired major US passenger airline Captain, I know a couple of things about USA airline procedures.... The agent knows if there's a jumpseat rider. The agent has to assign all seats (including the jumpseats) in the computer, for weight and balance if nothing else. Even presuming that the FO pulled up the paperwork, the agent(s) know who is working the flight. Regardless of whether the captain showed up and boarded with the rest of the crew, or boarded late, the agent knows who's going down the jetbridge and where they're sitting... including the Captain's chair.

Jolly good Murexway. If you're sure that's the case then the question asked of how the Hell did she get that far becomes valid.

Well, I'm not saying that agents are infallible. They're "supposed" to know who's in which seats and have some idea of who's going down the jetbridge, including crewmembers. But I noticed that United has a current opening for a part-time customer service rep in AUS. The agents are certainly overworked and underpaid. That opening specifies that the agent must be capable of lifting boxes, etc weighing 70 pounds. It's not unheard of that a single agent might be working a narrowbody flight, and if the door was open, this captain could have simply walked down the jetbridge without the agent noticing. So I'm not trying to blame the agent; just saying that the agent should have had some clue that the captain didn't look like a "normal" captain (no pun).

Apparently the agent tried to stop her from boarding:

The pilot boarded the afternoon flight at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport a bit late — wearing a ball cap and casual clothes.

Straight away, she appeared to get into an argument with crew members at the front of the plane.

From his seat near the back, Chris Moore figured at first that she was just another San Francisco-bound flier. “I thought she was a first-class passenger, complaining,” he told The Washington Post. “Then she grabs the mic.”

Another passenger told Reuters that the pilot asked for a vote on “whether we should have her change into her uniform.”

The passengers gave her a pass. Many found her request endearing, at first.
Randy Reiss, on his way home to San Francisco after a family funeral, was one of them.

“United has always, for me, been a very straight, corporate airline,” he said. “It seemed very friendly, nice, cutesy.”
“Then she said, ‘Sorry, I’m late. I’m going through a divorce.’ And I thought: Uh oh.”

Standing in front of the cockpit, the pilot kept talking over the intercom. Her speech veered into a string of non-sequiturs, and the mood in the cabin turned from cozy to uncomfortable, to worse.

The pilot pointed out two passengers at the front of the plane and noted their race — one black, one white — for reasons that were clear to no one.

The pilot touched on recent politics.
“She’s like ‘I don’t care if you voted for Trump or Clinton. They’re both [expletive],”

“Okay, if you don’t feel safe, get off the airplane, but otherwise we can go,” the pilot said, still sounding cheerful in the video as the first of her passengers began to revolt.

“Disarm the doors,” a flight attendant said.

“She’s not mentally fit to fly,” Reiss remembered telling an attendant as he waited for the door to open, he said. The attendant gave him a knowing look, he recalled, but replied, “She’s been cleared to fly.”

Still watching the drama from his seat, Moore told The Post, he saw an off-duty pilot call the pilot over and try to calm her down — to no avail.

She returned to the microphone and “did more talking,” Moore said. “I think she went into the cockpit.”

He decided to follow Reese toward the exit. So did many other passengers — at least 50, Moore

When she changed the subject to the plane’s imminent takeoff, Reiss began to shake, and another passenger began videotaping the drama.

Reiss was the first to evacuate. He got out of his seat, collected his bag and asked the flight crew to let him off.

He heard one flier yell “Stop!” at the pilot. Others were crying as they streamed back to the terminal.

When he cleared the jet, Moore said, even a gate agent was crying.
The agent told him that she had tried to stop the pilot from boarding, he said, quickly realizing that “the lady was unstable.”

“People were pleading … ‘Please call security,'” he said. “I’m wondering, if we didn’t do something, if the plane was going to take off.”

United Airlines did not respond when The Post asked that question. Nor did the airline say who the pilot was, what became of her, or what policies were in place that had cleared her to fly.

Reiss confirmed that a new pilot took the jet to San Francisco — about 90 minutes behind schedule, though other passengers rebooked through Houston.

Before he re-boarded, Reiss said, he watched police walk the pilot back through the airport. The pilot apologized and hugged him before they parted, he said. She offered to write a book with him.

uplinker,
Couldn't agree more and perhaps couldn't even talk to her family.

I'd also ask if the Continental merge is a contributor. I've heard a number of UAL crew openly complaining about having to adjust to the Continental culture which they entirely dislike.

Actually, cockpit doors were locked in the U.S. for years before the 9-11 attacks.

I think one or two of us here have experienced divorce, airline mergers and airline bankruptcy. And other life events like the death of a family member.

Like other crewmembers who show up unfit for duty, she is one of us and she needs help. And we must continue to make sure that these colleagues don't fly the plane when they are unwell.

I can think of maybe three cases of these 'emotional outbursts' from coworkers over the years but none were in public. All three pilots kept their jobs as far as I know.

I'm not sure how the Continental culture could be blamed, change is part of any job I would think. And we all talk here and elsewhere about the good old days and how we did it at Brand X. A friend from Continental moans about what a good airline they had until United came along and messed everything up. And, the perfect merged seniority list is the one where everybody is unhappy. ;)

And, if this woman never flies again she's had a better career than many of us. She was hired by United in her 20's as a 747 flight engineer, went to right seat on the 737 and DC-10 and has been in the left seat most of her career on the 727 and A320.

A year ago she tweeted:

Has anybody considered the chance that she boarded in uniform (and maybe even flew a leg) only to land, turn on her phone and see a series of messages from her Husband (or from friends showing evidence of infidelity) in which case she offloaded herself, got changed in the toilet so as not to be seen crying walking throgh the terminal in uniform and as she passed the intercom she snapped? Is that realitic? Seems more likely than making it through security dressed as she is. Baseball haps are good for hiding tears

Poor thing.

Divorce isn't that devastating - and certainly not something a SANE pilot should get into meltdown over.

If she can't take the strain she should be nowhere near a commercial aircraft - and that's for her to determine as we all have to day-to-day.

I visit to a shrink is definitely required, rest, and maybe a rethink of her career options.

Can I take it from that, you have never been divorced? I didn't get into meltdown, but that doesn't prove I'm sane.

About as realistic as little green men invading her mind and making her do weird things. Supposedly, she divorced in 2015.

To help dispel this "thought". It was the first leg after an overnight in AUS. She flew three legs the day prior.

Thought dispelled, I read the rest of page four. :)

Not any more fun the second time.... Good Luck

Sounds like another affirmitive action winning hire.

Remember the Fedex DC-10 crash with their equivalent hire.

I know...I'm the bad person.

Well, she was hired at a time when United was under the gun from a 1976 court decree in a case filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a 'diversity' agency of the federal government.

United had committed to a 'double quota' hiring strategy to increase diversity and was sued in 1988 by the EEOC for not being compliant with the earlier ruling:

Eeoc Hits United Hiring Plan - Chicago Tribune

As a result of the 1988 suit, United accelerated diversity hiring and adjusted requirements to more aggressively promote inclusivity. Separate interview programs were set up at the old Stapleton airport offices for so called 'EEOC' class (a legal term from an earlier lawsuit) applicants.

Technical knowledge tests were abandoned since some groups did poorly due to cultural bias and lack of educational opportunities.

The skills evaluation ride was no longer given in an airliner sim because that gave people with large plane flying experience an unfair advantage. Instead a little Frasca trainer desktop box with a Cessna type panel was used for the evaluation.

Pilot hiring manager Nancy Stuke published separate sets of average experience levels of successful EEOC and non-EEOC applicants.

Inevitably, some folks with very low experience levels were hired in the late 1980's and early 1990's. Of course, we all started somewhere and after a few thousand hours, you either get it or you don't.

I believe the captain in this incident probably had at least a few hundred hours of flight time, much of it in the family's 1947 Luscombe, and a commercial license when she was hired circa 1989. Also, quite possibly her father knew UAL V.P. of Flight Ops Hart Langer from the Pan Am days which may have helped.