The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1835 - Pilots Saw This Disaster Coming. No One Listened.

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00:00:57.240 We have uncovered new information and accusations about the cargo airline operating the Amazon Prime airplane that crashed in Miami on Sunday, killing five people in a van inside the airport perimeter and in a Toyota Corolla outside the perimeter.

00:01:13.140 This cargo airline called 21 Air has a documented history of hiring foreigners who can't follow instructions from air traffic controllers, as well as a reputation for hiring incompetent pilots who can't pass basic training at other airlines, according to industry professionals who say they have firsthand knowledge of the company's operations. 0.98

00:01:33.820 Now, we're going to go through the evidence we have in a moment, as well as the implications for air travel in this country, which, as we've discussed many times before, is increasingly dangerous and third world. 0.98

00:01:45.840 We will begin with the footage of the crash itself, which was presumably shot by a plane spotter or someone who noticed the plane was having difficulty.

00:01:55.180 And as you watch this, you will immediately realize that the pilots are responsible for the disaster.

00:02:01.200 I mean, there's no question about it.

00:02:02.520 They practically dive bomb the runway and they don't even get all the wheels down until they're roughly halfway down the tarmac.

00:02:10.720 But watch and see for yourself. Here it is.

00:02:32.520 now there's really no need for an aviation expert to analyze the footage anyone who's ever

00:02:47.200 seen a plane land at any point in their lives understands the problem this was a very unstable

00:02:52.460 approach they were not descending in a steady predictable pattern instead they were far too high

00:02:57.980 and too fast. And indeed, according to radar data, they crossed a waypoint about four miles from the

00:03:03.580 runway at 1,400 feet, which is 600 feet above where they should have been. The left main gear

00:03:10.400 is clearly off of the runway for an extended period of time, even after the other landing

00:03:15.280 gear made contact with the runway. And that means the plan can't stop effectively because none of

00:03:20.180 the systems that slow the plane down, the spoilers, the brakes, or the reverse thrusters

00:03:24.640 will work effectively or at all if the landing gear aren't on the ground. Now, you can see from

00:03:31.680 this reconstruction just how long it took for these pilots to put the plane on the ground.

00:03:37.880 It's not even close, really. So according to the website Flight Radar, the plane was going 183

00:03:43.480 knots, ground speed, not air speed, at just 500 feet above the ground. So they're about twice as

00:03:49.240 high as they should have been, probably going around 30 to 40 percent too fast. Now, there could

00:03:54.840 very well be a variety of reasons for why the plane wasn't able to fly a normal approach. It's

00:04:01.420 quite possible that the wind contributed. Obviously, thunderstorms were visible behind the plane.

00:04:06.660 As reported by meteorologist John Morales, there was a tailwind gust at the time this plane was

00:04:12.340 landing coming from the south at around 30 miles an hour. Normally, planes don't land with a tailwind

00:04:18.760 because it's too dangerous.

00:04:19.880 And until a few minutes before the plane touched down,

00:04:22.380 there was no tailwind at all.

00:04:24.480 There was actually a small headwind coming from the west

00:04:26.780 until the winds suddenly shifted.

00:04:28.360 So yes, it's conceivable that the wind shifted

00:04:31.060 at the last minute,

00:04:32.440 making this approach substantially more difficult.

00:04:34.980 And additionally, it's also possible

00:04:36.220 that the pilots simply weren't paying attention

00:04:38.420 to their airspeed or altitude.

00:04:41.000 Now, whatever the case, really doesn't matter

00:04:43.140 because whenever a plane flies an unstable approach

00:04:46.680 this close to the runway,

00:04:47.760 in every case, pilots are supposed to execute a go-around. That means they're supposed to abort

00:04:53.400 the landing, apply full throttle, and come around for another pass or divert to an alternate airport

00:04:59.860 if necessary. This is the fail-safe that solves all of these issues, and it's not optional.

00:05:06.380 They were descending at a rate of 2,000 feet per minute on their final approach when the normal

00:05:11.480 range is 500 to 800 feet per minute. Anything over 1,000 feet per minute on the descent is

00:05:16.840 automatically an unstable approach that requires a go-around. That's not even considering how long

00:05:22.200 it took them to actually put the plane on the ground. They blew past at least a third of the

00:05:27.400 runway, which is another reason for a go-around. At any point, as they were flying over the runway

00:05:32.760 and even as the landing gear first made contact, they could have aborted. Instead, they drove the

00:05:37.880 plane off the runway onto a perimeter road and they killed several people. In short, the only

00:05:44.800 conceivable explanation for this crash is that the pilots had no business flying an airplane

00:05:50.240 of any kind, much less a massive cargo plane. That's not really a debatable point. The footage

00:05:56.580 makes it very clear. We don't need to wait for the federal government to conclude a five-year

00:06:00.400 investigation to determine that the pilots caused this crash due to their manifest incompetence.

00:06:06.700 So now the relevant questions are, who were the pilots exactly? Why did the airline hire them?

00:06:14.560 What did their training look like?

00:06:17.280 And what were regulators doing instead of supervising this airline?

00:06:22.200 The first clue comes from the radio communications from this 21 Air cargo plane just prior to the crash.

00:06:29.960 So we'll play some of that footage, which was compiled by a channel called VAS Aviation.

00:06:35.180 And to be clear, the call sign for 21 Air is Cargo South.

00:06:38.660 So when you hear the pilot respond from cargo south, that's coming from the plane that ultimately crashed.

00:06:45.660 And note that in a two-person crew, the pilot making the radio calls usually is not flying the plane at the same time.

00:06:51.980 So with all that in mind, listen.

00:06:56.160 35-98 heavy.

00:06:59.100 ILS 3-0.

00:07:03.920 Cargo south 25-98 heavy.

00:07:05.780 Mindway 3-0.

00:07:06.480 Mindway 3-0.

00:07:08.420 Clear.

00:07:08.660 So the pilot clearly has a foreign accent,

00:07:32.980 which by itself may not seem like a big deal,

00:07:35.300 but then you think of all the foreign-born truck drivers 0.94

00:07:37.660 who have been mowing down Americans on the highway, and you start to wonder, does the

00:07:43.720 same problem affect airlines? Is there an epidemic of unqualified pilots who can barely

00:07:48.180 speak English who have been imported into this country to fly cargo planes or even passenger

00:07:53.300 airlines on the cheap? That's a reasonable question to ask, and it becomes even more

00:07:59.380 reasonable when you look at this letter from the FAA to the Director of Operations of 21 Air,

00:08:05.280 dated May of 2023. And the letter grants 21A air permission to, quote, substitute a qualified and

00:08:11.800 authorized Czech airman in place of an FAA inspector to observe a qualifying pilot in command

00:08:17.660 who is completing the initial or upgrade training during at least one flight leg that includes a

00:08:23.400 takeoff and a landing. So yes, the FAA granted this cargo airline the ability to ditch the

00:08:30.360 inspectors and certify their own pilots for takeoffs and landings. And there are a few

00:08:36.200 restrictions on the people the airline is allowed to substitute for the FAA inspector, but it's up

00:08:40.580 to the airline to ensure compliance with those restrictions. So it's kind of like the honor

00:08:44.840 system, basically. The letter is basically the FAA allowing 21 Air to self-regulate, which has

00:08:50.760 become a very common theme in the aviation industry. It's one of the reasons those Boeing

00:08:54.700 max jets kept crashing. And this particular exemption is commonly issued to various airlines,

00:09:00.900 but it's abundantly clear that certain airlines, especially garbage airlines,

00:09:06.580 but perhaps like 21 Air, should never have this authority. I mean, in this case, the FAA allowed

00:09:13.020 21 Air to get rid of independent FAA inspectors and basically self-certify their pilots for

00:09:19.200 landings. And now it's clear that their pilots were, you know, were not capable of landing the

00:09:27.100 planes, certainly in this case. So who are these pilots exactly? This is reporting from an engineer

00:09:33.280 named Nick Plum. And here's what he says, quote, 21 Air's pilot group appears to have grown from

00:09:41.020 around 20 in 2021 to 135 today, probably to support the seven additional Boeing 767s.

00:09:47.180 uh amazon shifted to it from atlas air another cargo airline public resumes show current pilots

00:09:54.620 at 21 air with prior flying careers in venezuela colombia peru central america ethiopia and india

00:10:01.540 21 air also hires permanent residents and other work authorized non-citizens

00:10:06.120 how this little known carrier scaled this fast may be worth digging into

00:10:11.580 and indeed it is so this got my attention so i decided to look closer at the reputation of 21

00:10:19.600 air in the industry specifically i pulled up dozens of posts on airline pilot forums

00:10:25.480 which is one of the most popular message boards among pilots if you're a pilot looking for a new

00:10:31.400 job and you want to get a sense of the quality of a particular airline this is almost certainly a

00:10:36.520 site that you're going to visit. So two years ago, the reputation of 21air was heavily discussed

00:10:42.220 on the airline pilot forums because one user was interested in working there. Quote,

00:10:49.720 you have no idea the horrors that await you at 21air. It is the bottom feeder of all bottom

00:10:54.780 feeders, clapped out rust buckets from Sanford and Son. The turnover is 100% because it's so bad.

00:11:00.840 there's nothing good in anyone's life going anywhere near 21 Air.

00:11:05.700 And then there's this, quote, almost every pilot that left ABX, that's another cargo airline,

00:11:12.140 for 21 Air was asked to resign because of how poorly they did in training. The only person

00:11:17.220 I'm aware of that wasn't asked to resign was a prospective captain that got mad after he failed

00:11:23.280 his ETOPS check and left out of spite. The only thing I can confirm is that almost all the guys

00:11:30.280 who left ABX for 21 Air did so because ABX asked them to resign during training.

00:11:36.940 There are many more posts we'll get to in a second, but just by themselves, these two

00:11:41.340 comments paint actually a very familiar picture. If you remember, it was just a few years ago when

00:11:47.360 another Amazon Prime cargo plane, which was operated by a different carrier called Atlas Air,

00:11:53.160 crashed into the water while on approach to Houston. And the cargo plane was being flown

00:11:59.040 by Conrad Aska, who's a DEI hire who had no idea what he was doing in the cockpit. He constantly

00:12:05.400 failed his simulator training at other airlines, but he wound up getting hired by Atlas Air anyway.

00:12:12.200 Atlas Air, of course, promoted DEI all over its website at the time, and it didn't take long

00:12:16.480 before Conrad Aska managed to fly a perfectly good airplane into the water. He accidentally

00:12:21.460 pressed a switch that caused the plane's nose to tilt upward slightly, apparently because his

00:12:26.260 gigantic watch hit the switch and then in a panic for reasons that make no sense he decided to push

00:12:32.940 the nose of the plane as far down as he could disregarding all of his instruments which told

00:12:37.800 him that he was crashing the plane. This is one of the more unbelievable sequences to ever take

00:12:42.580 place in modern aviation. It's basically akin to accidentally pressing the accelerator pedal on

00:12:48.360 your car and then when the car lurches forward you consciously decide to press down on the

00:12:53.380 accelerator pedal for another 60 seconds until you crash into a wall going 100 miles per hour.

00:12:59.280 That's essentially the equivalence here. Watch. The crew was setting up the approach procedure

00:13:05.260 when the airplane encountered light turbulence. Shortly afterward, the autopilot and auto

00:13:10.940 throttles entered go-around mode as the airplane was passing about 6,300 feet. There were no flight

00:13:18.380 crew call-outs. Consistent with the activation of the go-around mode, the airplane arrested the

00:13:23.880 descent and began a slight pitch-up, and the thrust levers advanced. The speed brakes were retracted,

00:13:29.680 which could only be done manually. The captain responded to a routine radio call, while the

00:13:34.780 first officer pushed forward on the column and made an expression about speed and exclaimed,

00:13:39.760 we're stalling. There was no indication that the airplane actually stalled. It was likely that the

00:13:45.400 first officer was experiencing disorientation due to the somatographic illusion, in which

00:13:50.740 airplane acceleration results in a false nose-high feeling. The airplane reached a steep nose-down

00:13:57.480 attitude in high speed. Below about 3,000 feet, the airplane broke out of the clouds. The controls

00:14:02.740 moved to full nose-up, but it was too late before they impacted the bay. So that presentation was

00:14:08.880 from the NTSB, which claims that the pilot became disoriented, which is a very polite way of saying

00:14:16.080 that he didn't have the IQ necessary to be a pilot. If your plane suddenly pitches up and your

00:14:22.040 response is to fly the plane directly into the ground, even when all of your instruments are

00:14:26.440 functioning normally, then you're not merely disoriented. You are completely and totally

00:14:32.600 incompetent. And indeed, it's becoming apparent that total incompetence are being allowed to fly 1.00

00:14:38.860 massive cargo planes all over the country. In particular, they're getting hired by Amazon

00:14:43.660 or at least contractors for Amazon. And that's why seven years later, yet another Amazon plane

00:14:49.980 has crashed in a very preventable, absurd fashion. The more you look into 21 Air, the more complaints

00:14:56.180 you'll find from other pilots about how the airline was destined for a major crash. So here's

00:15:02.820 another post, for example, where a pilot responds to someone who didn't get a callback from 21 Air

00:15:08.200 after an interview. The pilot describes a scenario where a 21 air cargo plane working for a DHL

00:15:14.760 caused a major incident in Newark. Quote, no offense, but it's probably good they aren't

00:15:20.040 calling you. The other night we taxi behind a DHL cargo south, again means a 21 airplane,

00:15:27.040 clapped out 767 in Newark. Crew never turned on the beacon. Ground screamed at them twice for not

00:15:34.140 following directions. The English was poor. Guess they don't know how to handle a low-altitude

00:15:39.060 capture on the 76 because they blew past 2,500 clearance, and you could tell they were struggling

00:15:45.880 to get the airplane on track and on altitude. ATC was livid. Not worth putting your certification

00:15:51.940 on the line for a 36th Street Venezuelan money laundering outfit. You're better off 1.00

00:15:57.520 flying a paper airplane. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I don't understand everything

00:16:04.000 in this quote, but from what I can tell with the help of Google, if we go line by line, the pilots

00:16:10.240 of a 21 air jet failed to turn on the beacon on their plane, which is used for avoiding collisions,

00:16:15.540 of course. They also got screamed at by ground controllers, presumably for being unable to taxi

00:16:20.240 properly. And then once airborne, they climbed beyond 2,500 feet without authorization, which

00:16:25.500 endangered every other plane flying around Newark. And on top of all this, we're told that a 36th

00:16:30.520 Street Venezuelan money laundering outfit is involved. That's apparent reference to the

00:16:35.900 well-established use of cargo airlines to smuggle drugs and other contraband to Central and South

00:16:42.100 America, although we should note there's no evidence that 21 Air is knowingly involved in

00:16:46.000 anything like that. That's just what it said in that one post. Nevertheless, the testimonials

00:16:51.240 along these lines continue to roll in. Again, all these are from a couple of years ago prior to this

00:16:58.140 recent crash. Apparently, 21 Air had earned the nickname 21 Scare among pilots. Quote,

00:17:06.240 I've heard some scary stories of friends jump seating on 21 Scare, terrain warning and controlled

00:17:13.020 flight into terrain maneuvers, high altitude stalls, automation issues. The majority of the

00:17:19.320 pilots' English is their second language. Amazing they haven't bent up a 767 yet. They're also in

00:17:25.820 cahoots with Cargo Jet, exploiting a loophole with temporary aircraft certificates and signing

00:17:31.760 over airplanes from Cargo Jet to 21 Air with a logbook entry, and then operating domestic U.S.

00:17:37.880 flights, then signing the aircraft back over and flying back to Canada. So yes, the person wrote

00:17:44.120 that it was amazing that a 21 Air hadn't destroyed a Boeing 767 yet, given how terrible the airline

00:17:51.680 is. And just two years later, that's exactly what happened. They managed to destroy a jet

00:17:57.380 and several vehicles in the jet's path, along with killing several people. Now, obviously,

00:18:02.740 we can't vouch for the credibility of any anonymous post on the internet. I don't endorse

00:18:09.420 anything these people are saying for the simple reason that I can't prove any of it. I'm just

00:18:12.900 telling you what these people are reporting. But in this case, there's obviously reason to believe

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00:21:17.260 So the specific accusation here is that cargo jet, which is a foreign carrier, will land in the United States, then give control of the aircraft on paper over to 21 Air.

00:21:28.620 and this is necessary because by law, only domestic cargo carriers can fly from one U.S. city to

00:21:34.360 another. This is actually a pretty well-documented phenomenon. Whether you view it as a loophole or

00:21:39.360 not, it appears to be legal, but the optics aren't great, especially since CargoJet held

00:21:44.960 significant, roughly 25% ownership stake in the holding company of 21AIR, and former CargoJet

00:21:50.680 executives have taken senior roles at 21AIR. So it looks like 21AIR is basically a middleman

00:21:56.420 for foreign cargo companies to get around the requirement of U.S. law.

00:22:04.060 There are other alleged benefits that 21 Air provides to this foreign airline.

00:22:07.980 Reading on from another poster, it says, quote,

00:22:11.360 You would not honestly believe what goes on there.

00:22:14.080 It's the management team that perpetuates the complete madness, though.

00:22:17.740 The executives are old buddies from the 36th Street gangs back in the day.

00:22:21.960 They don't know any way else.

00:22:23.560 the owners are real pieces of work, and 21 Air is set up to fly struck freight if sister cargo jet

00:22:29.560 goes on strike. You will be forced to get a Canadian validation to do this very thing

00:22:34.660 if you don't get fired. There is only one place worse than 21 Air, and that is World Atlantic.

00:22:40.040 These two are where you go when no one else will take you. My surprise, not really, is that after

00:22:45.120 all the incidents and poor training and conditions, the FAA lets these companies continue to operate,

00:22:49.480 but no one else will fly the flowers and the bodies and that famous white stuff

00:22:54.500 in and out of SA. It's really just that simple. You're honestly better at alligator Alcatraz 0.63

00:23:00.760 than 21 Air. So that's a thinly veiled and unsubstantiated accusation that 21 Air is

00:23:07.000 trafficking cocaine, among other things. And again, I can't confirm any of that. Obviously,

00:23:12.720 I'm just telling you what they say. He's also saying that the primary purpose of the airline

00:23:16.040 is basically to bust strikes that take place in Canada

00:23:19.240 and that the executives at the company

00:23:21.640 are corrupt friends

00:23:22.900 from other fly-by-night cargo operations in Miami.

00:23:26.400 Again, these claims may or may not be true.

00:23:29.680 I have no idea.

00:23:31.060 But after what just took place in Miami

00:23:32.900 with a 21-air cargo plane

00:23:34.700 flying the single worst approach ever caught on film,

00:23:38.540 at least in memory,

00:23:40.200 there's no reason to automatically discount

00:23:42.660 any of these posts.

00:23:44.000 everyone at the airline should be investigated. All of these pilots and industry professionals,

00:23:50.240 everyone who made these posts, should be interviewed at a minimum. So here's one more

00:23:55.320 post along these lines. Quote, for the love of God, stay as far away from this place as possible.

00:24:00.980 You have no idea what you'd be getting yourself into. It truly is a bottom feeder of epic

00:24:05.180 proportions. Management that has been on the same merry-go-round for years, they go from one bottom

00:24:10.840 feeder to the next. Now, again, you could discount all these claims if you want to. Certainly there

00:24:15.600 are plenty of small airlines that get similar complaints on forums like this, including

00:24:19.360 airlines that as of now have not had a fatal crash. So maybe this is all slander from random

00:24:25.220 people with an ax to grind. Maybe 21 Air only hires the most competent pilots available. Maybe

00:24:31.060 the executives are very ethical people and there was no way to prevent the crash that just took

00:24:35.500 place in Miami. But if that's the case, you have to wonder why we're not allowed to know the names

00:24:42.020 and employment history and qualifications of the pilots who were involved in the incident.

00:24:47.440 This is obviously a matter of public concern. Five people are dead. A plane just careened

00:24:53.340 off the runway at a major airport. We have a right to know who was involved so we can figure

00:24:59.140 out how to prevent pilots like this from ever getting hired again. Whatever privacy rights

00:25:03.880 these pilots have, they don't trump the public's right to know what happened. People are dead

00:25:10.600 because of the actions of these pilots. So who are the pilots? Well, the government right now

00:25:16.520 won't tell us. And that's not surprising since the government has a clear conflict of interest

00:25:20.860 here. They supposedly regulate the airlines. Public disclosure of the identity of the pilots

00:25:25.420 could reveal government incompetence or complicity in certifying these pilots, just like the

00:25:30.480 government certifies incompetent truck drivers all the time. And for their part, for obvious reasons,

00:25:35.000 the airlines also want to bury the story forever. And we shouldn't allow that. If the pilot,

00:25:41.200 hypothetically, just got hired from Venezuelan Airlines or something like that, it would be a

00:25:47.200 national news story, and rightfully so. But this has become normal in the aviation industry. In

00:25:52.820 late 2022, a United Airlines passenger plane departing Maui plunged 7,000 feet per minute

00:25:59.420 to within 800 feet of the ocean, all because of pilot error.

00:26:02.900 And to this day, we have no idea who these pilots were.

00:26:07.820 They have not faced any kind of discipline either, as far as we know.

00:26:12.120 Watch.

00:26:13.280 A frightening nosedive.

00:26:15.380 We are learning about that United Airlines flight from Hawaii to San Francisco

00:26:19.100 that nearly crashed into the Pacific.

00:26:21.740 It happened in December, but tonight the report is out,

00:26:24.940 and we are hearing now from passengers.

00:26:27.420 They call it a miracle. Rod Williams and his family were headed to San Francisco

00:26:33.360 after a Hawaiian vacation. Very shortly into the flight itself, the pitch of the aircraft

00:26:39.480 took a dramatic rise. It was December 18th, less than 90 seconds after departure. New data from

00:26:46.920 Flight Radar 24 reveals the United Airlines 777 suddenly dove, falling 7,000 feet per minute.

00:26:55.340 We're all looking at each other, looking at the window, grabbing onto the seat, grabbing the hand of the person next to us, praying under our breath.

00:27:04.900 Again, maybe a scream here and there.

00:27:06.760 Williams has an aviation background and says he had an idea of what was happening, but today he's learning they were within 800 feet of slamming into the ocean.

00:27:16.380 We're all that 5 to 5.2 seconds away from not being around our loved ones.

00:27:21.240 In a statement, United Airlines says after landing at SFO, the pilots filed a safety report, then coordinated with the FAA and the pilots union on an investigation that ultimately resulted in the pilots receiving additional training.

00:27:36.460 So the pilot wanted five degrees of flaps and the first officer sets 15 degrees instead.

00:27:43.320 They don't realize it and they nearly crash as a result.

00:27:45.600 The key detail here is that the pilots self-reported the mistake, which apparently grants them total immunity.

00:27:52.200 The NTSB has concealed the pilot's identities, and the airline hasn't punished them solely because they self-reported under the Aviation Safety Action Program, or ASAP, which is something the FAA apparently endorses.

00:28:06.180 Now, first of all, whether they self-reported this or not, the passengers were going to report it themselves, so they don't really deserve any credit.

00:28:15.180 Plunging 7,000 feet per minute is something you would probably notice if you're a passenger.

00:28:20.800 And secondly, even if no one had noticed it somehow, self-reporting should not grant you immunity from consequences.

00:28:26.360 I mean, if you self-report that you nearly crash a plane and kill everybody on board, you should be named and certainly fired and potentially arrested.

00:28:37.120 Instead, we have a system where you suffer no consequences whatsoever.

00:28:41.720 I mean, imagine if we had this system in any other profession.

00:28:44.120 Imagine if a police officer accidentally shoots at an innocent bystander and the bullet misses by a fraction of an inch.

00:28:51.500 If he self-reports what happened, are we just supposed to look the other way?

00:28:54.760 it's absurd but that's how it works in the aviation industry once you have enough children

00:29:02.340 meals can sometimes become more of a theoretical concept the children eat meals you prepare the

00:29:08.420 meals and then you clean up the meals but somehow your own lunch consists of three bites of something

00:29:14.000 while standing over the kitchen counter and half of whatever your child decided they no longer

00:29:18.500 wanted this is not something that can be explained before becoming a parent and you know that is

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00:30:18.400 this is a good time to mention that united airlines is well known in the industry for its

00:30:24.160 aggressive dei targets they set a goal of having 50 of the students in their flight academy being

00:30:30.160 women or people of color they have all kinds of partnerships with various explicitly non-white

00:30:35.820 organizations including the organization of black aerospace aerospace professionals the latino

00:30:41.500 pilots association the professional asian pilots association so they heavily recruit from so-called

00:30:48.080 historically black colleges as well. They are a DEI airline, in other words, and they know that

00:30:54.340 as long as their pilots self-report their mistakes, then there's a good chance we'll never find out

00:30:59.600 their identities or whether DEI was involved in their hiring. Now, even in cases where we do

00:31:06.300 ultimately learn the identities of the pilots, it takes a while. A couple of years ago, for example,

00:31:12.780 an American Airlines plane crossed roughly 1,000 feet in front of a Delta flight with 145 passengers

00:31:19.420 on board that was departing from Kennedy International Airport in New York. The American

00:31:25.480 flight was supposed to turn right to cross runway 31 left, but instead it proceeded across runway

00:31:32.060 4 left where the Delta plane was taking off. Watch. Delta 1943 went 35018, Gus 24, runway 4 left,

00:31:40.700 Clear for takeoff.

00:31:41.700 Clear for takeoff, runway four left, Delta 19, 483.

00:31:44.800 Drupal 918, Kinney Tower, runway four left, line up and wait.

00:31:47.500 Four left, line up and wait, Drupal 918.

00:31:49.400 American 185, Kinney Tower.

00:31:51.400 Go ahead for American 185.

00:31:52.900 American 185, runway three one left, Kilo Echo, line up and wait.

00:31:56.900 Line up and wait, three one left, a Kilo Echo for American 185.

00:32:06.900 Delta 1943, cancel, takeoff clearance.

00:32:10.700 Delta-1943, cancel takeoff clinch.

00:32:14.320 Rejecting.

00:32:15.640 Tower American, I want to see heavy.

00:32:17.740 American, I want to see heavy. 0.99

00:32:21.180 The last clinch we were given, we were cleared to cross. 0.99

00:32:23.800 Is that correct? 1.00

00:32:26.500 American, I want to see heavy. 0.90

00:32:28.940 We're departing runway four left.

00:32:31.720 I guess we'll listen to the tapes, but you were supposed to depart runway four left.

00:32:36.120 You're currently holding short of three-one left.

00:32:38.600 so this was seconds away from being one of the deadliest aviation accidents in history

00:32:58.060 and after the near miss the cover-up began first the crew did not report the the incident to

00:33:03.480 american airlines instead they flew all the way to london a flight so long that the cockpit voice

00:33:08.180 recorder was taped over. And then when federal investigators tried to interview them, the crew,

00:33:13.340 on the advice of their union, refused to cooperate. The NTSB had to issue subpoenas to get them to

00:33:19.780 talk. And it's because of those subpoenas that we ever learned the names of the pilots

00:33:23.420 in the first place. For more than a year after the incident, their names were redacted.

00:33:28.800 So finally, after the NTSB opened its public docket, we learned that the co-pilot, Tracy

00:33:33.520 Gonzalez, claimed she had been distracted by a large number of weather alerts. She said that,

00:33:39.120 quote, she was unaware of the airplane's position when the captain taxied onto runway 4L. She knew

00:33:44.560 they were approaching a runway, but she did not realize they were approaching runway 4L.

00:33:49.020 Meanwhile, the captain, Michael Graber, was equally clueless. He admitted he spotted big

00:33:55.000 red lights, meaning do not enter the runway, but he disregarded them. Quote, all of a sudden,

00:33:59.680 I saw that red glow and I just right away I said something that ain't right. I didn't know what was

00:34:04.360 happening, but I was thinking something's wrong. Obviously, none of these pilots should ever work

00:34:10.280 again. But as far as we know, they're still flying passengers around. The government hid their

00:34:15.720 identities for months until the heat died down. The pilots stalled the interviews for as long as

00:34:20.360 possible. And now that we've determined the pilots were culpable, nothing was done. Now, to be clear,

00:34:26.960 DEI is just one part of the story. Again, we still have no idea whether the pilots in the

00:34:31.660 Miami crash were DEI hires or not. Yes, as a general matter, it's true that DEI pilots are

00:34:37.660 being protected even after they nearly kill people. That's true. But we should also be honest

00:34:42.640 about the fact that falling standards in the aviation industry are linked to various cost

00:34:48.320 cutting measures as well, including how companies outsource to contractors to lower overhead costs,

00:34:55.200 skirt liability, cause a race to the bottom to improve their revenues.

00:35:02.180 One of the reasons Amazon hires multiple cargo companies to fly these planes

00:35:06.240 is to pit the companies against one another.

00:35:10.160 Amazon wants the lowest rates, so rather than hiring one dedicated high-quality cargo airline,

00:35:16.740 they provide an incentive for these bottom-feeding airlines to fight among themselves for the contract.

00:35:24.340 Foreign hiring, of course, is another related element of the story.

00:35:27.380 So is the fact that the FAA allowed this airline to self-certify its own pilots for takeoffs and landings.

00:35:35.460 So we're extremely lucky that this accident, as horrible as it was, only involved a cargo plane and a couple of vehicles.

00:35:43.280 As I've been saying for several years now, we are on a trajectory where air disasters are going to become more common than ever.

00:35:50.380 We simply have too many planes being flown in very congested airspace, along with too many exemptions and DEI pilots. 0.87

00:35:59.700 The midair collision over the Potomac, which was caused by a female helicopter pilot, was a sign that something needs to change in this industry and quickly. 0.51

00:36:09.540 And the crash of this Amazon cargo plane in Miami and all the warning signs that were missed is a reminder that none of those changes have actually taken place. 0.63

00:36:21.280 In fact, it was just a few weeks ago that Marine One, the president's helicopter, was allowed to come far too close to a passenger plane over Reagan Airport in D.C.

00:36:29.820 because the controllers missed the key radio transmission from the helicopter.

00:36:34.620 This is the state of American aviation.

00:36:36.420 and we can't even keep the president's helicopter safe.

00:36:40.360 We are reliant on a small number of air traffic controllers

00:36:43.720 who hate their jobs, 1.00

00:36:45.860 foreign pilots who can't speak English,

00:36:48.220 and airlines that self-certify their own terrible pilots. 0.98

00:36:52.980 This is a setup that makes many more disasters inevitable.

00:36:59.120 And until someone in the government has the foresight

00:37:01.580 of random anonymous pilots in an online message board,

00:37:04.900 we can expect that nothing will change and every flight you board will carry a substantial

00:37:11.320 preventable unnecessary risk because of it that'll do for the show today thanks for watching

00:37:18.600 thanks for listening talk to you tomorrow have a great day godspeed

00:37:21.840 every significant movement in history has started with protesting 0.99

00:37:30.580 You're a traitor! 0.99

00:37:31.400 Uncle Tom! 1.00

00:37:32.160 This is our generation's civil rights!

00:37:33.880 I have no idea what the protest is about.

00:37:35.880 Bingo!

00:37:36.440 Given the current climate,

00:37:37.880 we should have figured as polarizing as Clay Saunders

00:37:40.540 can even be allowed on Kansas City.

00:37:41.840 Ah, can you hear me okay?

00:37:43.080 Saunders is a close personal friend of Chancellor Friedman.

00:37:45.540 This is a decision I cannot find. 1.00

00:37:47.100 Islam will conquer the West. 1.00

00:37:50.280 As-salamu alaykum. 1.00

00:37:53.380 Are we paying attention? 1.00

00:37:55.740 They've taken over the building.

00:37:57.160 They're downstairs and they've blocked the doors.

00:37:58.620 I seek forgiveness from Allah the Almighty.

00:38:03.620 We cannot run and hide.

00:38:05.620 Muhammad is the messenger of God.

00:38:08.620 There is no God but Allah.

00:38:11.620 What do you say? 1.00

00:38:13.620 We turn those SOBs into a fine red mist. 0.99

00:38:17.620 As we move, one man will cover while the other guys go. 1.00

00:38:21.620 They call that leap project.

00:38:23.620 Stretch your mouth and listen.

00:38:25.620 You need a course in safe weapons handling.

The Matt Walsh Show - September 08, 2026

Ep. 1835 - Pilots Saw This Disaster Coming. No One Listened.

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