Air travel (particularly within the U.S.) has been a traveler's nightmare for decades. Unlike those photos from the '50s where airports looked like visions of the future and everyone on the plane was dressed to the nines and flying in luxury, modern air travel, including the airports, often leaves much to be desired. In the words of the wonderful Douglas Adams:
'It can hardly be a coincidence that no language on Earth has ever produced the expression 'as pretty as an airport.' Airports are ugly. Some are very ugly. Some attain a degree of ugliness that can only be the result of a special effort. This ugliness arises because airports are full of people who are tired, cross, and have just discovered that their luggage has landed in Murmansk ... and the architects have on the whole tried to reflect this in their designs.
They have sought to highlight the tiredness and crossness motif with brutal shapes and nerve jangling colours, to make effortless the business of separating the traveller from his or her luggage or loved ones, to confuse the traveller with arrows that appear to point at the windows, distant tie racks, or the current position of Ursa Minor in the night sky, and wherever possible to expose the plumbing on the grounds that it is functional, and conceal the location of the departure gates, presumably on the grounds that they are not.'
Sigh ... we miss Douglas Adams.
But even through the end of the 20th century, air travel was still tolerable and efficient. We're pretty sure the real hell started with the inception of the TSA. Like most government-mandated alphabet organizations, the TSA has proven to be utterly useless and just an endless suck of taxpayer money. Post-TSA, everything has seemed to just start careening downhill. Fast.
But up until very recently, at the very least, you could usually count on air travel to be (mostly) safe.
Today, as every airline seems to embrace the destructive force known as DEI, even safety seems to be flying out the window (sorry, bad joke in this context).
For instance, take a look at this recent Virgin Airlines flight from Manchester, UK, to New York City:
NYC-bound flight canceled when passenger notices missing bolts on plane wing https://t.co/C5va75ZvrZ pic.twitter.com/pMNU0ht9a4
— New York Post (@nypost) January 22, 2024
Beg your pardon? It took the PASSENGER to notice that something was wrong with the wing?
We could have sworn the airplanes had maintenance crews for that sort of thing. But maybe not so much.
Oh wow. Now us passengers have to inspect the aircraft ourselves? Should I bring some duck tape and some extract bolts as well?
— Valentina Gomez (@ValentinaForSOS) January 22, 2024
Probably not a bad idea. We'd suggest a screwdriver as well, but TSA would just end up seizing it from you.
The “passenger notices”… lord help us all… https://t.co/UTVnUpCeSI
— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) January 22, 2024
Yeah, the maintenance guys were holding drag shows in the hangar. They missed a few bolts. They simply couldn’t miss Stormy Brassiere performing cabaret. https://t.co/yrKeHD9g0G
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) January 22, 2024
Actually, we're pretty sure they were watching the CEO of United Airlines in one of his classic drag shows.
Oh, you may be saying, but that's just one flight. It happens. 'Pobody's nerfect,' right?
Yeah. About that ...
the wheel of a Delta Boeing 757 just flew off while it was preparing to take off at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The wheel then rolled down the runway...
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) January 23, 2024
could have been catastrophic if it happened a few seconds later
video from 1/20 (VASAviation) pic.twitter.com/mO7Fvzysmx
FAA confirms the nose wheel came off and rolled down a hill. Plane stayed on runway for several hours awaiting tow. https://t.co/rxbV0P1THj
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) January 23, 2024
Uhh, were they counting on a water landing? Do 757s come equipped with pontoons now?
If this doesn’t scare you into not wanting to fly then there’s something wrong with you
— Paul A. Szypula 🇺🇸 (@Bubblebathgirl) January 23, 2024
We're not entirely sure that is not the goal here. [Puts on tinfoil hat.] Making air travel unsafe would go a long way towards restricting people to 15-minute cities, just like Klaus Schwab always dreamed of.
But wait. The Delta incident was even worse than you imagine.
Yeah it doesn’t even appear the delta plane was aware its wheel came off. If the other planes hadn’t noticed it this could’ve been really bad.
— Gregg Re (@gregg_re) January 23, 2024
Sweet Jesus, save us.
To further illustrate what is happening with air travel, let's not forget the recent adventures of passengers on Alaska Airlines where, just this month, a door blew off a plane mid-flight, another engine caught fire in mid-air, and today, more great news:
Alaska Airlines says "many" of its Boeing 737 Max 9 planes were found to have loose bolts - NBC
— BNO News (@BNONews) January 23, 2024
The FAA has now grounded all Boeing 737 Max 9 planes and ordered a full safety investigation. (Just in the nick of time, guys, as usual.)
Jan 6: Door blows off Boeing 737 MAX 9 mid-air
— John Hasson (@SonofHas) January 23, 2024
Jan 18: Boeing 747-8 engine catches fire mid-air, burns a "softball sized hole" in the plane
Today: Alaska Airlines reports loose bolts on "many" Boeing MAX 9's
Today: Wheel flies off Boeing 757 preparing for takeoff
WTF pic.twitter.com/hnPpez3rRi
It's been a helluva month for Boeing, hasn't it? But don't worry, everyone. The New York Post has 'assured' us that airplane crashes are now 'safer than ever.'
We feel SO much better.
wow, i wonder why this is happening so often lately https://t.co/HNVKcwazjo
— drefanzor memes (@drefanzor) January 22, 2024
It's a good question. And, in all fairness, it's probably not ALL related to DEI.
Except that it kind of is.
Conservative political commentator Matt Walsh talked about all of these incidents recently and while a direct line to DEI is probably not there for all of them, there is a very clear indirect line.
Because, as Walsh noted, when DEI eliminates all merit from hiring considerations in favor of 'identity hiring,' every employee (regardless of their race, sex, sexual orientation, etc.) becomes completely disengaged. Their performance simply does not matter to their employer. So, accordingly, they stop caring as though it mattered. They become, as Walsh states it, totally 'checked out.'
It is difficult to argue against the logic there.
And, as Walsh concludes, it's one thing when the person in the drive-thru window at McDonald's or the barista at Starbucks is 'checked out.' All that's going to happen there is that they get your food or drink order wrong.
It is something else entirely when employees who are responsible for the safety of thousands of passengers every day, hurtling through the air at 500 miles per hour on a 120,000-pound explosive projectile, stop caring.
Maybe we should stop focusing on DEI and start focusing on 'making air travel great again.'
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