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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsDelta Airlines bribed doctor $74,000 to declare pilot mentally ill for reporting safety problems.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/29/2131793/-Delta-paid-a-doctor-to-declare-a-pilot-mentally-ill-after-she-spoke-up-She-just-won-big-in-courtIn response, top Delta executives had Petitt diagnosed with a mental illness to prevent her from flying.
“We should consider whether a Section 15 is appropriate,” Jim Graham, then Delta’s vice president of flight operations, wrote to a pilot manager, using the terminology for a process that would deem Petitt too mentally ill to pilot planes. “If she cannot embrace and understand the reasons behind our actions, it stands to reason she might not be able to make appropriate decisions for the safe operation of a flight.”
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Dr. David Altman, the doctor Delta hired to assess Petitt, was paid $74,000 and came up with a bipolar disorder diagnosis on exquisitely sexist grounds: Petitt was doing so much with her life—the job, the kids, the degrees, the books—“well beyond what any woman I’ve ever met could do,” according to Altman, so she must be manic.
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In 2020, Altman gave up his medical license rather than face charges over his diagnosis of Petitt. That’s how corrupt this was.
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Even after the final settlement, with Administrative Law Judge Scott Morris calling it “improper for [Delta] to weaponize this process for the purposes of obtaining blind compliance by its pilots,” Delta refused to admit any wrongdoing.
“We made a business decision to settle the matter rather than appeal a decision that we disagreed with,” spokesperson Catherine Morrow wrote in an email to The Seattle Times. “Delta’s fitness for duty testing process for pilots is in place to ensure safety, and it works.” But Delta’s pilots will have a chance to learn the truth: Morris ordered copies of his decision posted at every Delta pilot base, in addition to the $500,000 plus legal fees the airline will have to pay Petitt.
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Demovictory9
(37,113 posts)
Deuxcents
(27,445 posts)Too much money to buy what and/or who they want
Raster
(21,010 posts)All the benefits of long-life and none of the consequences for their actions.
In reality, corporations are just entities comprised of rich people's money empowered to do things --legal and otherwise-- real humans cannot do.
erronis
(24,231 posts)designed to escape any responsibility and take as much money/resources as they can.
PatrickforB
(15,488 posts)PROFITS for shareholders. That is it!
So they did a cost/benefit analysis to determine which action would be best for SHAREHOLDER PROFITS, and determined they should drum the whistleblower out with a trumped-up mental illness because if they sweep it under the rug, there will be no repair cost, and if something happens, they will do ANOTHER cost/benefit analysis to determine if it is cheaper to just pay off the families of the victims since it isn't going to happen EVERY time, OR if it was really bad, fix the problem.
Seriously.
THAT, people is the fruit of this capitalist utopia in which we live. No morality but the golden idol of raw greed. Wall Street roars. Main Street suffers.
chia
(2,828 posts)corporation in this day and age thinks it can get away with bribing a doctor to diagnose mental illness in a healthy person.
ShazzieB
(22,777 posts)
crickets
(26,168 posts)In addition, Jim Graham should have lost his job or at least faced some sort of disciplinary action. But no.
No disrespect intended to the pilots, but it doesn't seem that Delta has learned any constructive lesson from this.
Has there been a shift in the culture at all? I don't know that I will ever feel safe about flying with Delta again.
Joinfortmill
(21,467 posts)
ProfessorGAC
(77,081 posts)There are thousands of companies that wouldn't do what Delta did.
It's just that, the companies willing to do it typically stoop so low we tend to remember those events.
In the meantime, 50,000 good, ethical decisions get made by more conscientious execs.
I worked, in management (the last 9 years at director level), for two multinational, multi-billion dollar corporations. Neither of them would have done something like this.
erronis
(24,231 posts)and the company did well during their tenure.
Just like any public officer - federal, state, local - make their long-term compensation based on a history of actually doing well.
Get rid of taxpayer payoffs for evil-doers.
I guess I should not be surprised though. It seems like the corrupt doctor is the only one who had any real accountability here but he only lost his license. I found out my brother’s GP is a fraud which I knew already. He was RX medication through a pharmacy in another state fraudulently and receiving kickbacks. But instead of being charged with anything he paid $125,000 fine and did not lose his license. The legal document was published online.
I have always hated flying and I don’t fly anymore at all. I was once on a plane that almost crashed. I was coming back from Ohio after visiting my brother and we stopped in Pittsburgh. We were approaching to land in Pittsburgh, we could see the runway, and all of a sudden we went back up in the air and nobody said anything- about 10 minutes later the pilot who sounded very angry said as you may have noticed we had to abort our landing because there was another plane on the runway. After that we flew around for about half an hour before we could land and the flight attendants were all very upset, you could visibly see it. I had to run to get my connecting flight and I had taken my beloved kitty at the time with me. All I could think of was that she would’ve died if we had not been very lucky, the pilot definitely saved our lives that night.
NoRethugFriends
(3,768 posts)Though very bad, it does happen, and the pilot can easily go back up.
Happened to me. Wasn't particularly scary
Meowmee
(9,212 posts)Thank you for your opinion but you are trying to downplay what happened that night. By the way, the pilot was upset and so were all of the flight crew. You are wrong, but certainly entitled to have a misguided opinion of course. This is not something that happens all of the time I used to fly more so I know, it has never happened once before much less happened frequently.
wnylib
(26,315 posts)Meowmee
(9,212 posts)The pilot saw the plane on the runway and aborted the landing…we were close to the runway, We could see it and then all of a sudden we dramatically started going up- nothing was said for 10 minutes and then he came on air, he was clearly very upset and angry… he told us what happened. So we had been cleared to land and there was another plane on the runway, I never got the full story of what happened but I can tell you I know from the speed the planes go and how close we were to the runway that this was not very far from all of us being killed and he saved us. The flight crew were very upset and everyone on the plane was nervous. It was half an hour before we finally landed. When I got off the plane the flight crew looked terrified and they said some thing like we got our skidmarks tonight, I can’t remember exactly what they said but it was clear what had gone down.
wnylib
(26,315 posts)since I was not there, is one of 3 possibilities.
1. Air traffic control was shorthanded and someone did not catch the two planes coming toward each other.
2. Air traffic controller responsible for your landing was distracted or incompetent.
3. The other plane was not cleared and acted independently of the control tower.
Meowmee
(9,212 posts)Tg the pilot was alert and saw it. Many of the terrible crashes were caused by this type of error and the pilots did not see it in time.
MerryHolidays
(7,715 posts)but "go arounds" do happen. I've had it happen to me twice. Once, like with you, there was another plane on the runway, and we aborted the landing. The second time, many years later, it was because the winds were too high.
Go arounds are an important part of flying. Unless the pilot(s) are absolutely certain they will make a safe landing, a go around is the far safer course.
And, yes, it's scary! But it's MUCH safer than the alternative.
malaise
(297,334 posts)Damn this is wicked criminality
NoRethugFriends
(3,768 posts)malaise
(297,334 posts)PatrickforB
(15,488 posts)Now, they pack you like sardines into little tiny seats with no legroom, and you breathe recirculated air inside the metal tube for the duration of your flight, complete with airborne viruses from all the passengers.
Then when the time comes, you can get a little dinky bag of peanuts for free! Oh, but wait, you had to pay $30 to check your bag.
I'm pretty much over flying.
dflprincess
(29,396 posts)Remember when we were told how great that would be for consumers?
I miss the days when the only way the airlines could compete was with service. (The same goes for banks.)
EX500rider
(12,663 posts)"I miss the days when the only way the airlines could compete was with service."
You mean when only rich people could fly?
In the 21st century, air travel is relatively cheap, but in the 1950s, you could expect to pay 40% or more for the same ticket you buy today. A ticket on TWA in 1955 from Chicago to Phoenix, for example, cost $138 round-trip. Adjusted for inflation, that's $1,168.
https://www.travelandleisure.com/airlines-airports/history-of-flight-costs
ShazzieB
(22,777 posts)It was cramped then; I hate to think what it would be like now. From what I read and hear, the way they pack people in is unhealthy and dangerous and should be against the law. Deregulating the airlines was a terrible idea. Things started going downhill after that, and have continued to do so ever since.
Add to that all the extra security rigamarole since 9/11, and it sounds like air travel has become a nightmare for all but those who can afford to fly first or business class. I'm not afraid of flying, but I am very leery of what you have to go through to do it.
DFW
(60,355 posts)If I have to run down to Spain for the day, I can’t very well afford the 20 hour train trip each way. The flight (2 hours to Barcelona, 2 hours 20 minutes to Madrid) is my only alternative.
On trips back to the States, I don’t have a week to spare taking some ocean liner to get there.
iluvtennis
(21,516 posts)from Pisa to Amsterdam and never gave us passengers any notice. That missed flight to Amsterdam caused me to miss my flight back to the states. Delta re-booked us for a flight the next day, but refused to give us hotel and food accommodations. Had to file claim with flight insurance company (...glad I purchased the coverage ...) to get reimbursed for those expenses.
I will never fly Delta internationally again, not ever.
DFW
(60,355 posts)We were on a code-share KLM flight flown by Delta from Amsterdam to Boston. Some of the Delta crew tested positive for Covid, and the flight was canceled, rescheduled for the next morning. We were reimbursed not only for the hotel in Amsterdam, but also for the taxi rides to and from the hotel, as well as a €600 payment to compensate for inconvenience. Delta is part of the Sky Team alliance, which includes Air France-KLM. I am Platinum for life with Air France, so that probably helped. Air France used to have a horrible reputation, but someone around 1985 must have explained the concept of “customer service” to them, and someone listened—right around the time both American and Lufthansa heard about customer service, and thought, “what a stupid idea THAT is!”
In my experience, American is the absolute worst. We got to the check-in counter in Dallas 2 hours before flight time, and were flying business class (big fare, not an upgrade). They were overbooked, so they left us to stand there for 90 minutes and then told us we were too late to check in. An idiot manager then told us we were too late to be booked on any other flight to Europe (a lie-I had their schedule, so suddenly all those flights that didn’t exist were fully booked), and we had to pay for our own hotel. American practically owns Dallas, but I still will never fly with them again unless the only other alternative is a rickshaw or a rowboat.
Also, Delta planes aren’t authorized to fly inner EU routes, so while your flight from Pisa to Schipol may have had a Delta code share flight number, I’ll bet the actual flight was carried out by either KLM or Alitalia. Maybe even a fill-in, subcontracted airline. Lufthansa/Eurowings has so few planes and crew after Covid that some of my intra-European flights with them (Düsseldorf-Barcelona, e.g.) are flown with planes and crew from either Air Baltic (Latvia) or Air Malta, and no, I have not yet seen Mayor Pete on any of those flights.
iluvtennis
(21,516 posts)correct that my flight from Pisa to Schipol was not a true Delta flight - it was operated by Ryan Air. And when the cancellation happened Delta said they weren't responsible and we'd have to deal with Ryan Air directly. Told Delta I wasn't even aware of Ryan Air as my booking was made and paid for on Delta.com. I feel my blood pressure rising even thinking about the entire fiasco, so I'm gonna stop commenting now.
DFW
(60,355 posts)Whereas the outsourcing by Lufthansa and its Eurowings cheapo alter ego is done to airlines like Air Baltic and Air Malta, both companies have performed 100% adequately when I have taken them. Since October/November is my busiest time of the year (today is my first day at home in Germany in two weeks), that means a lot. I took five flights between Düsseldorf and Zürich just this past week.
There are two companies here in Europe known for their super-cheap fares, but piss-poor service. One is called "Easy Jet." They were horrible. The other is Ryan Air. They are also super-cheap, but their service is based on "look, you paid shit, and that is the service you're getting." I had no idea Delta even contracted flights out to them. Since they are based in Ireland, they are EU, and thus can fly between EU destinations. They take up a lot of the slack to smaller airports that aren't served regularly by the bigger airlines. For a small country's airline, KLM flies to a lot of oddball places, too, but they are usually quite professional.
When we fly, we find out who is really doing the flying, because if you book a flight with Air France or Delta, and it turns out the actual flight itself is being carried out by Air Albania or Air Alabama, or some other third world airline, you're better off taking an earlier flight and suffering a longer layover.
iluvtennis
(21,516 posts)operating a flight when I make my upcoming reservation to fly to Italy to visit my daughter.
So, glad you made it home to Germany. Take care.
Evolve Dammit
(21,805 posts)dlk
(13,307 posts)In the future, I won’t be flying Delta. Any airline that would abuse a competent pilot in such an ugly fashion has a serious problem.
wnylib
(26,315 posts)to ignore them and go after the pilot instead.
ShazzieB
(22,777 posts)What corners are they cutting? What unnecessary risks are they taking? What kind of disaster is this going to lead to? Ugh.
greblach
(295 posts)My wife says it stands for "Doesn't ever leave the airport"... Several bad experiences with Delta over the years, but the staff must hate this...
Response to DetlefK (Original post)
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Meowmee
(9,212 posts)It happens in all types of injuries, they lie about everything to try stop treatment asap too- no fault doctors.
RockCreek
(1,491 posts)Every person in the corporation involved in this should be fired. No bonuses, silver parachutes, etc. Just gone. Fired with cause clearly stated.
I know. Wishful thinking.
aocommunalpunch
(4,583 posts)It’s all in the game, y’know? A(Corporations)AB. Regulate the EVERLOVINGFUCK out of them or understand who you kneel to.
mn9driver
(4,852 posts)At the time, Steve Dickson was running Delta Flight Operations. Jim Graham was just his stooge.
Mad_Machine76
(24,980 posts)that's extremely creepy. Not unlike what totalitarian countries do with their dissidents.