Well I think we would all hope the pilots are a bit more professional than this one …
Pilot caught scolding on San Jose ATC frequency
Twitter users @lostpckt marks some interesting ATC audio (thanks @olouie for drawing your attention to it). Specifically, this audio is dated March 13, 2021 and is from the air traffic control tower (ATC) frequency at San Jose Airport (SJC) in California:
In this audio clip, you can hear a pilot scolding over San Jose for apparently having a stuck microphone that anyone can hear on the frequency. It’s hard to understand what the pilot is exactly about (especially since we can only hear one side of the conversation given the hot mic), but I understand that:
- “Fuck this place, damn liberal fucks”
- “Eight cannons out here somewhere as it is”
- “F * cking weirdos who probably drive around in f * cking Hyundais, f * cking streets and sh * t that go as slow as f * ck
- “You ain’t got no balls unless you fuck a rolling coal man, damn it.”
Who said that ?! And what exactly is its point? He’s got a problem with … Hyundais?
Do we know which pilot that is?
The person who tagged this audio suggests this was a Southwest Airlines pilot, although I’m not sure this is correct.
Southwest Airlines Flight 531 is on the frequency around the same time a San Jose to Seattle flight was. The flight was waiting for take-off at this point.
While it’s entirely possible that it was a Southwest Airlines pilot, I can’t be sure. It seems to me that the chatter starts with something like “1043 is ready to go”. However:
- It’s possible I’m missing something, but I’m not seeing flight numbers from 1043 from San Jose
- On the other hand, I’m not convinced that he actually said that, because as soon as the hot microphone is switched off, we no longer hear any talk of a Flight 1043
- With that in mind, it wouldn’t be surprising if that pilot were actually caught by a hot microphone when the other pilot picks up communications from there, hoping not to get caught
So yeah, I can’t be sure which airline this pilot worked for, but he sure could use a chat with …
Bottom line
A pilot was caught on a hot microphone at the San Jose airport a little over a week ago while he was cursing bizarrely. While the vast majority of airline pilots are professionals, there will of course be some bad apples.
Are there any clues that I am missing that could tell us with certainty which pilot is behind it? Did I misunderstand the number “1043”, right?
