Some passengers on an ultra long haul United Airlines flight from South Africa to the United States got a little more communication from the pilots than they were expecting, as one pilot reportedly transmitted over the PA what “f**king morons” the flight attendants are. Thanks to PYOK for flagging this.
In this post:
United passengers catch pilot’s accidental hot mic rant
A Reddit user who is a very frequent flyer on United shares an incident that reportedly happened on a recent Boeing 787 flight from Cape Town (CPT) to Washington Dulles (IAD). According to the report, as the plane was starting its descent, one of the pilots made their usual pre-landing announcement, as you’d expect. But then this happened:
But once he had finished speaking, there was a 30-second pause, and then he came back on the PA, clearly thinking that he was talking over the intercom, calling to speak with the purser or another FA. “Hello? ….. Hello?” he said. You could hear ATC comms on the radio in the background. He continued trying to contact the cabin crew, and began to spout off to his colleagues in the cockpit.
“What a bunch of f**king morons! They won’t pick up the phone.”
At this point, passengers are exchanging glances with each other as if to say: “Are we all hearing this right now? What is going on?”
The captain/FO continued on to drop 2-3 more f-bombs and really lost patience as he tried to communicate with the crew, but at no point did he seem to realize he was talking with 250+ customers in the back of the plane. The cabin crew scurried awkwardly around the aircraft as they did their final safety checks, and you could see the purser trying to call up front to let them know about the open mic situation, but it seemed like no one could get through while the mic was open. I was too far back to see whether they managed to communicate with the cockpit through the door.
This went on for at least seven minutes, maybe a little more, before they went silent. Very awkward!
Whatever had happened with the PA mic actually never seemed to get fully resolved because for the remainder of the flight, the message “PA announcement in progress” remained displayed on the TV screens.
We never heard from the cockpit crew again, even after landing. The purser or gate agent did come on and say that they apologized for the problem with the PA system.
Yowzers, that’s not good, but we’ve heard worse!
Of course the irony here is that the “f**king moron” flight attendants definitely weren’t doing anything wrong, and this was either a mistake on the part of the pilots, or a glitch with the communication system.
Given that this all happened shortly after the intended announcement to the cabin, I suspect that the pilots either didn’t hang up the phone correctly to reset the connection, or some other glitch arose at that point.
While I wouldn’t say it happens all the time, it’s definitely not unheard of to see pilots transmitting the wrong information to the wrong party. Pilots communicate with air traffic control, with the flight attendants, and with passengers, and those are all separate connections.
I’ve certainly heard pilots accidentally transmit takeoff clearance over the PA system, rather than to air traffic control. And I’ve also heard them transmit information intended for the crew to passengers.
Fortunately this is usually innocent enough, since it’s just an honest mistake, and they’re not doing anything scandalous. But pilots also spend most of their time in a private space thinking that no one will hear what they say, and sometimes they really cross the line in terms of their conversations. After all, they’re only being recorded by the cockpit voice recorder, and that constantly overwrites itself.
Perhaps the worst example of inappropriate conversations in the flight deck was around 15 years ago, when a Southwest Airlines pilot was having a conversation with his colleague, but their entire chat accidentally transmitted over the air traffic control frequency.
It would be an extreme understatement to suggest that what he said was offensive, so you can listen to it below. I love how he was suspended and then received diversity education… I would’ve paid to see how that went!
Bottom line
A United Airlines pilot reportedly had a bit of a hot mic moment, when he couldn’t get in touch with flight attendants, and called them “f**king morons.” The only issue was that this was being transmitted to passengers, because he failed to actually call the flight attendants, as he intended to.
Communicating to the wrong party on planes happens with some frequency, and that’s not surprising, when you consider the complexities of the system. What’s unfortunate is when the pilots have an attitude about it, and they transmit something they really shouldn’t…
What do you make of this United pilot hot mic situation?
It's high time changes are made with US airlines and how they operate. Pilots on international flights cant complain about pay benefits. FA seniority is BS when most of the older FA's (age) are Not dedicated to their jobs and should be extremely limited to how many long haul flights they can fly per month. There needs to be more management oversight with flight peer reviews and lead flight services manager for every intl flight.
It's high time changes are made with US airlines and how they operate. Pilots on international flights cant complain about pay benefits. FA seniority is BS when most of the older FA's (age) are Not dedicated to their jobs and should be extremely limited to how many long haul flights they can fly per month. There needs to be more management oversight with flight peer reviews and lead flight services manager for every intl flight.
Also, quit nickel and diming on flight staffing and turnaround layovers. Qatar, Emirates, Singapore and others all have at least 48 hour layovers and limits on how many long haul flights they can fly/mth and cabin staffing takes into account passenger experience. Also, it is BS how many rest hours Sr FA's take on enroute on US Flag carriers. I have spoken to numerous FA'S on how much crew rest time they get on int'l airlines and it is about 4-5 hrs for a 15 hr flight.
This shows the underlying disrespect that some, not all, pilots have for Flight Attendents. They are bus drivers as one poster mentioned, but prima donnas without question
The pilots were likely correct in their summation, after all you dont expect any better from the cabin crew of a usa carrier.
US based airlines are truly the “school buses of the sky”.
I used to work in aviation safety. If you saw what I saw about NON us based airlines you would never fly with them again. It's like if you knew what went on in a restaurant you would never eat out again. Obviously, I can't share specifics but damn sometimes the reports were good reading. While I despise flying with us based airlines their pilots are the absolute best when it comes to safety. Ego.... Not so much, case and point.
Sorry to be the voice of reason here, but if the pilot is making an announcement to the entire cabin instead of just the FA, doesn’t that make him the F-ing moron?
This reminds me of a flight long ago when the 777-200 was new to the AA fleet. My flight was on a 772 LGW-DFW. I had noticed during boarding that the Captain was in coach talking to a passenger a few rows ahead of me. I assumed the pax was a friend, perhaps an AA Pilot buddy.
Many hours later, somewhere over Ohio, the Captain came on the PA "will passenger 'John Doe' please come...
This reminds me of a flight long ago when the 777-200 was new to the AA fleet. My flight was on a 772 LGW-DFW. I had noticed during boarding that the Captain was in coach talking to a passenger a few rows ahead of me. I assumed the pax was a friend, perhaps an AA Pilot buddy.
Many hours later, somewhere over Ohio, the Captain came on the PA "will passenger 'John Doe' please come to the forward galley immediately". I thought nothing of it, thinking maybe the friend recently retired, so Captain has some champagne or something for him. I did think it odd when the passenger got up then turned to his wife and shrugged his shoulders as if he was clueless about the request.
About 5 minutes later, another PA was very sternly made:
"THIS IS THE CAPTAIN OF THE FLIGHT ! I want you to know that we'll go ahead and do it, but I don't particularly like doing this kind of thing while in flight !!"
I was affiliated with AA at the time, so based on the rest of the flight and later research on the maintenance write-ups, to make a long story short, one of the biz class seats was smoking with an 'electronic' smell. Captain was requested to continue and start trouble shooting by one-by-one pull cabin circuit breakers to see if the issue could be isolated. So I guess that's what the Captain didn't like doing & the friend was called up to have another set of eyes in addition to the relief Captain.
Getting off topic, but something that still peeves me to this day....
At no point were the throttles reduced to start a descent for a potential emergency landing. We were advised that sections of the cabin will go dark for a few minutes along with anything else electronic. This trouble shooting eventually pointed to the video system as the culprit. This event was well after Swissair 111. About 3 hours later, while deplaning at DFW and passing thru the biz cabin, the acrid smell was still very noticable.
I’m surprised 7+ min of not being able to contact the FAs doesn’t flag some security/safety risk
*checks handbook* turns out, cursing at them over the loudspeaker is the right thing to do. Huh. /s
I'm sure there are many periods of any flight where the pilots go well beyond 7+ minutes without a need to contact the F/As.
Being Married to a FA for over 30 years I can honestly say I am not surprised in the slightest. Most FAs according to Her have little desire to interact with the Flight Deck Crews other than on a professional basis because MANY lack the social skills to communicate on an acceptable level (many are rude, downright condescending arrogant SOBs), tend to be obnoxious with a few drinks in them, are embarassing and CHEAP. Being...
Being Married to a FA for over 30 years I can honestly say I am not surprised in the slightest. Most FAs according to Her have little desire to interact with the Flight Deck Crews other than on a professional basis because MANY lack the social skills to communicate on an acceptable level (many are rude, downright condescending arrogant SOBs), tend to be obnoxious with a few drinks in them, are embarassing and CHEAP. Being a Corporate Level Exec at a large firm Myself I was quite startled with the behavior of some of these so called "professionals' once off the clock.......pushy, very rude,loud and for many making six figures some of the most frugal, CHEAP SOBs that I have ever seen. My Wife who is a Purser handles the tight rope dealing with them On the Aircraft but under no circumstance will she interact with them on an Overnite and she pretty much has the same opinion of some of the Cabin Crew with many being the underbelly of Society that she has ZERO desire to be seen with and observe their loud obnoxious antics, drunkeness and cultural ignorances. As she often reminds Me, Be CAUTIOUS to what lies behind the curtain or after they take off the uniform.
Painting with a broad brush , perhaps ? Many innocent fliers were wrongly accused after the "tailhook party" . Actually , many fliers are true "bird men" who are courteous and good .
Is participating in one of worst misogynistic parties painting with a "broad brush" ? That party lead to a military stand down concerning violence against women. And you defend them?
@Roger - bet your wife is popular at work: "Here comes that stuck-up cow who won't even have a drink with us off the clock."
When I flew for Pan Am obviously many years ago, the macho, racist, homophobic bullshit of a number of our Sky Gods was so obnoxious that going out as a crew on layover was challenging at times.
Civilized.
First World.
Yeah, right.
Just heard about another story of a pilot transmitting his welcome on board announcement to the ground frequency - comments there said "if you're in the US you"ll sure get enough compliments from others in the channel although you might not prefer that to silence"
"Whatever had happened with the PA mic actually never seemed to get fully resolved because for the remainder of the flight, the message “PA announcement in progress” remained displayed on the TV screens."
16 hours of this on the screen while I'm watching a film and I'd start dropping the F-bomb too.
Doesn't the "PA announcement in progress" also mute the audio for anything on the IFE system?
Ben , Bad Words have no place in civilized conversation . You didn't need to repeat them here .
I suspect Ben forgot that this blog is here for you, and you alone. Your fragility is to be honored and respected, and blog entries should only use language that passes muster with you. Thank you for the much much much much much needed reminder.
What about girl food and beardys? Can those be covered here? Let Ben know ASAP so he can take into account your guidance on language.
Alert, why are you going as 'Albert Wonders' (aka 'Albert the Knowledgeable') over at VFTW? I mean, you did literally copy-and-paste what you said here over there, too. Word for word. Like, give us a backstory already! Sheesh...
There has been an unsubstantiated allegation that a pilot used a Bad Word . Repeating the Bad Word does nothing to clean the mouth and ears .
By "Bad Word," do you mean "f**king" morons?
Also, why are you going as "Albert Wonders" (aka "Albert the Knowledgeable") over at VFTW?
Because I am knowledgeable .
‘Fly the friendly skies…’ ya f***in’ morons!
Well I guess we all know now who the F*/&ing moron was