It's been a while since I've written a post and I'll get a new one up shortly, but I'm compelled to address this news account by the Los Angeles Times. Here's the headline.
"DELTA AIRLINES PILOTS GET LOCKED OUT OF COCKPIT FOR NEARLY FOUR HOURS."
Somewhere over America in a pilotless jet airplane!
What???
I don't know how you read this, but I had visions (see above) of a pilot at 35,000 feet, sweat poring from his brow, feverishly beating on the cockpit door trying to regain entry as his B-767 sped through the atmosphere at mach 80, mothers with young children crying and praying for help. How could this have happened I wondered? Well, rest assured... it didn't.
OK, I really didn't think that, but I'm certain that many, unaccustomed to air travel, had visions of a drone commercial jet floating through their mind. And it's exactly what the writer intended when he wrote it and the editor hoped for when he approved this misleading caption. But after you read the article you eventually learn... Oh, they were on the ground, at the gate at LAX and the flight was delayed. Here, you can read it for yourself.
I don't mean to minimize the situation; an unspecified number of paying passengers, people whom I depend upon for my livelihood were regrettably inconvenienced, as well as others downline whose transportation was linked with this aircraft or crew. From my viewpoint though, the reader has been mislead purposefully in an attempt to sell newspapers. This is journalistic sensationalism at its best and the news media wonders why readership is down and trust in their product is low.
Headlines that once only appeared in the ENQUIRER are surfacing in mainline publications like the LA Times these days. I'd hardly consider them a news source after reading drivel like this.
