Afraid of flying? It’s time to get scared: wokeism has started making inroads into airline industry big way. Pilots are told to use proper and inoffensive language, and aircraft makers are getting more and more concerned about the so-called Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies, instead of making their product safe.
The Air Line Pilots Association International (ALPA), the largest pilots’ union globally, is now telling aircraft crews that the word “cockpit” may offend some and they better use other expressions.
What is so offensive about cockpits, the ALPA didn’t say.
A few years ago, Airbus encountered their own round of issues with the do-gooders. When their planes are close to touchdown and their automated systems detect they are going too fast and tell the pilots to retard, meaning they should use whatever braking mechanism they have that is not yet in operation, the politically correct crowd got upset. Nobody told them that the word meant an instruction to decelerate or slow down.
When the Airbus critics howled in disgust, ALPA told them where to take off, and the problem seemed to have been solved.
Not so fast. If there is anything the politically correct can’t stand, it’s defeat. Normal logic be damned.
The criticism by the flying illiterates forced ALPA to issue their own Inclusive Language Reference Guide.
The union has run into major disagreement coming from the ranks of the most experienced fliers. Take your language guide and stuff it you know where was the tenor of pilots’ reaction. When we fly, it’s safety first, not worries about some hyper-sensitive bimbos who would faint if we uttered an impolite four-letter word while handling a critical situation.
Strange timing
The ALPA call is coming at a time when major aircraft builders face huge safety problems.
For example, Boeing has been losing fly-worthiness certifications for their ultra-modern planes left, right and centre, and no DEI initiatives are going to help them.
And yet, it’s precisely these initiatives that can be blamed for many of the problems the famous U.S. aircraft builder has been encountering the last few years. Hiring imbeciles to fill particular quotas won’t make airplanes safer.
Some analysts say another issue Boeing has been encountering has something to do with their merger with McDonnell-Douglas company a couple of decades ago, their then-major industry competitor. It was McDonnell-Douglas at the time who needed to be rescued but, quite shockingly, it would precisely their corporate poohbahs who would take over the reins at Boeing. The corporate culture at Boeing changed swiftly with their arrival, with penny-pinching becoming a major objective, and safety issues taking a back seat.
With these DEI programs getting all kinds of government support, including grants and order preference, Boeing’s fate was doomed.
And now the industry faces a union push for more of such nonsense.
Airline analysts claim that it was precisely the combination of the new bosses’ penny-pinching with politically correct culture that is to blame for the grounding of the 737 Max after two fatal crashes. The focus on DEI initiatives, such as language changes, may have diverted attention from addressing critical safety and operational issues.
ALPA should concentrate on how to make its members’ (the fliers) jobs easier and safer to perform.
Certainly, languages tend to develop and what used to be your normal vernacular and colloquial expression yesterday can be obsolete today and forgotten tomorrow.
Yet, it shouldn’t be coming as art for art’s sake (l’art pour l’art). Language development dictated from above have reasons other than pure linguistics. They are politically motivated, set to create chaos, not to improve communications between people.
Ask any airline passenger whether they prefer politically correct language in the cockpit to safe arrival (and on time) at their destination, and the overwhelming reply will be obvious.
Questions, questions, questions ... 
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