Airline Oppo’s

"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti) 04/04/2020 at 00:39 • Filed to: None

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Saw this pop up on my news feed. Seeing how airlines are run and seeing airplanes continue to fly into my city I’m very concerned. However, I have no way to confirm whether the video is real or not. I know we have FAA and Delta people here. Can you guys offer any insight?

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > DipodomysDeserti 04/04/2020 at 00:50

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My friend who flies for SWA is grounded for  14 days after his trips now. I guess that helps.

SmugAardvark > DipodomysDeserti 04/04/2020 at 01:44

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This looks like a DALPA thing. Unions in the aviation biz are much like unions elsewhere. I like to think of them as a necessary evil. While they do protect their employees, they often do so with misinformation in an effort to “stick it” to the parent company.

The fact that all these people are clearly only sharing anecdotal evidence rather than hard facts leads me to believe there’s a lot more speculation going on here than anything else.

With all that said, I’m not going to ‘stan for the airlines. I currently work in airport management, not for an airline. But what it comes down to in my opinion is that, like any company, airlines should (and from what I have personally seen, are) following CDC reporting guidelines. Look at it this way, what do you think the odds are that a grocery store clerk testing positive for the virus the day after you shopped at the store will work its way back to you informationally? Seems to me that would be a more likely means of viral transmission.

As for Delta closing their training center, don’t we have someone here on Oppo that works there at their ATL hub? To me, it sounds like an abundance of caution in closing it.

I guess I’m just not understanding something. What exactly is your concern with aircraft flying in and out of airports?

Grindintosecond > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 04/04/2020 at 09:36

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Just him for other reasons, not me. We are not grounded after trips. If someone we worked with tests poisitive, we hear about it and then get the days off for self Q. But there’s no standing order to be off 2 wks after flights.

Grindintosecond > DipodomysDeserti 04/04/2020 at 09:43

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Faa has allowed extensions for training  due dates, also for medical due dates. In this time my airline has closed it’s training center during those extension times, as we run a thousand pilots through it every month plus instructors and other office people who go back out and fly around (a huge spread risk) so good on them.

Lots of airline pilots love to make educated assumptions and believe they’re more right about things than they are.... Like that 20 minutes of Google thing my aunt does and then knows more than viruolog ists.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > Grindintosecond 04/04/2020 at 10:37

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Offf, no wonder they were freaked out .

DipodomysDeserti > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 04/04/2020 at 10:59

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Only helps if people are being tested and  taken care of. Otherwise it’s pointless to have temporary groundings.

DipodomysDeserti > SmugAardvark 04/04/2020 at 11:17

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“ I guess I’m just not understanding something. What exactly is your concern with aircraft flying in and out of airports?”

Planes, and nothing else, brought this thing from Wuhan, China, all around the world in record time. And airlines seem fairly flippant in their handling of this. The fact you work at an airport and fail to realize this has me very concerned. Airports are ground zero for transmission in every city outside of Wuhan. If your city is outside of China and has Covid cases, there is coronavirus in your airport. Sky Harbor has had workers test positive and it’s been a shit show with the city notifying people. Shutting down local economies to prevent spread is pointless if you’re still going to import more cases. You either have to test a certain number of disembarking passengers, or shut shit down.

You say closing a training center shows an abundance of caution, when schools in around the country have been forced to close for weeks. That’s the absolute bare minimum.

Highlander-Datsuns are Forever > DipodomysDeserti 04/04/2020 at 11:33

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See what Grindsintosecond said grounded for 14 days if they were exposed. And yes still no widespread testing of anybody 

DipodomysDeserti > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 04/04/2020 at 11:44

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The main reason this thing is a problem is it’s spread by asymptomatic people. Without testing anything outside of a full on lockdown is pointless.

DipodomysDeserti > Highlander-Datsuns are Forever 04/04/2020 at 11:49

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The most surreal aspect of this for me is that the richest nation to ever exist had absolutely no cohesive plan for a pandemic, or even an epidemic. This despite us having had them in the past and them being a thing for  all of human history. It’s almost like this vulnerability is programed into us.

SmugAardvark > DipodomysDeserti 04/04/2020 at 18:33

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Well, then I guess it’s fortunate that your level of concern does not drive protocol and policy . Like I said elsewhere, a total ground halt across the country and across the world would bring myriad serious consequences. For starters, that m akes it nearly impossible to get critical personnel and resources from place to place. This is a fact for both cargo flights and passenger flights (which are almost always used to transport both people and cargo, thus partly why some airlines are still flying routes with few or no passengers ).

Are you saying that airlines are flippant because of a YouTube video chock full of union rhetoric, but lacking any substantial data? How many airline representatives have you spoken to?

Then there’s this:

Planes, and nothing else, brought this thing from Wuhan, China

Funny enough, the first documented cases of transmission outside of China had nothing to do with aircraft. Namely, the Diamond Princess cruise ship. And way back in Jan uary, before the president even cared what was happening, three major US airlines (Delta, United, and American) took the measure of halting flights from China. That doesn’t look abundantly flippant to me.

So where do you draw the line? A full and legally-binding lockdown order to the effect that no one can leave the confines of their home for any purpose whatsoever? No going for a walk, no going to get provisions, no going to hospitals for treatment? Because person-to-person transmission is what we’re looking at, and the virus does not care if it infects people on a plane, on a boat, in a grocery store, in a hospital, or anywhere else. That might work for you. But not everyone has a garden of their own. Not everyone has the means and abilities to live off the land, so to speak.

Final thought: I’m sorry if this is coming across standoffish or argumentative. This is genuinely not my intent. You asked for opinions from people who work in the industry, and I’m trying to oblige with the breadth of my background.

DipodomysDeserti > SmugAardvark 04/04/2020 at 21:03

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Well, then I guess it’s fortunate that your level of concern does not drive protocol and policy.

I don’t think you’ll be singing that same tune in two weeks. I’m not taking anything anyone says personally right now, as I understand everyone is under a lot of stress. I appreciate your perspective. To give some background, my sister is a nurse currently working Covid units. She is being forced to use the same N-95 mask and store it in a plastic baggie between uses. You’re generally supposed to dispose of them between patients with highly infectious diseases, and most definitely are never suppose to reuse them between shift. We don’t even have a severe outbreak yet and there’s already not enough supplies. I don’t think non healthcare workers are fully appreciating the severity of the current situation. I have a BS in Health Sciences and will graduate with an MS in a public health adjacent field, so that’s more where my head is at. My SIL was already laid off and my brother’s pay cut by 20%, and appreciate the financial strain this is having and will have on people.

SmugAardvark > DipodomysDeserti 04/04/2020 at 22:15

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To be honest, I’m living my personal life and my career one day at a time. This is a situation that is wholly new to all of us. So, I won’t be surprised or caught off guard if they shut down commercial air service tomorrow , next week, next month, or whenever. At that point, it doesn’t matter one iota what my personal feelings on the matter are. A big part of what makes me efficient in my job is that I know change is inevitable and that the key is to adapt to it within the parameters I am given rather than complain about things I have no control over.

That mentality came to me from the work I did prior to pivoting to my current career path, which was Fire/EMS public safety. I did over a decade in a few roles, namely EMT, ocean lifeguard, and 9-1-1 o perator.

Believe me, it is frustrating that we do not have work-provided masks available to myself or my staff, despite us interacting with other people on a daily basis. I know odds are fairly good that I will contract the virus at some point. And I know that being a diabetic and dealing with mitochondrial myopathy puts me in a high-risk category. But until that happens, I am going to keep doing my best to make sure things here run as smoothly as possible while keeping my people as safe as I can within the constraints we’ve been dealt.

DipodomysDeserti > SmugAardvark 04/04/2020 at 23:23

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I think that’s the type of attitude that will get any of us through this. I wish you nothing but the best and good health.

SmugAardvark > DipodomysDeserti 04/05/2020 at 02:57

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Likewise!