Southwest Airlines Pilot Suspended After Rants About Old And Gay Flight Attendants

A pilot for Dallas-based Southwest Airlines has been suspended without pay for broadcasting an obscene tirade about a lack of flight attendants he would have sex with.  He complained that most of Southwest's attendants are gay or old, or both.

The pilot didn't know it, but his microphone was stuck open, and his rant was heard by control centers and other pilots all over the southwest.  An air traffic controller tried repeatedly to alert him that his microphone was on, all to no avail.

Much of the anti-gay language has been bleeped out in the audio posted on KPRC TV's website, but it’s not hard to fill in the blanks:

via KPRC: Houston-based Southwest pilot suspended for on-air rant | Newswatch | a Chron.com blog.

A statement from Southwest Airlines says only that the pilot was suspended without pay, and the company considers it an internal “family matter.”

Cece Cox, executive director of Resource Center Dallas, says "the pilot's statements were anti-woman, anti-age, and anti-gay." Cox says Southwest should be concerned because its own corporate culture apparently allowed this person to "exhibit this kind of hostility, discrimination and hate.”

The FAA has issued a statement saying it “expects a higher level of professionalism from flight crews, regardless of the circumstances.”

via LISTEN: Southwest Airlines pilot's anti-gay, mysoginistic rant over stuck cockpit microphone.

Ironically, Southwest Airlines scored 95 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign’s 2011 Corporate Equality Index.  According to HRC, Southwest conducts mandatory LGBT diversity training for all employees.