United Airlines sends pilots ‘brutally honest’ report after four incidents

Officials at United Airlines took the decision to send a “brutally honest” report to its pilots after four incidents which involved errors by flight crews were categorised as “major safety events and near-misses.”

United Airline Image by Curimedia | P H O T O G R A P H Y / CC BY 2.0

ABC Eyewitness News report that the blunt message last month came from Sr. Vice President Flight Operations, Howard Attarian and Vice President Corporate Safety, Mike Quiello. Their report claims that two of the incidents occurred close to the ground where a pull-up manoeuvre was required in one of the cases.

The flight crew was blamed for contributing to a safety lapse in another incident involving an undesired aircraft state of departure while there was also a low fuel case in a separate incident which was documented. The United Airline officials stressed that in all four cases, the common thread was that they were preventable. They also highlighted a case in Birmingham, Alabama, which killed two people after the plane crashed short of the runway and which later was blamed on pilot error.

After details of the correspondence were reported in the Wall Street Journal, United Airlines issued a statement to ABC News. It said the airline constantly monitors flight data and regularly sends such information to their pilots. It added that it had a proactive approach to safety.