The following was forwarded to me. It makes good reading:
Mitch,
Your article is getting hammered on the pilot bulletin board—guys are just so amazed at how either
1) clueless you are to the true role Don Carty played with labor at AA…
2) disingenuous you are willing to be to perpetually ingratiate yourself to power-brokers.
Bruce Hicks parlayed his role as a journalist to snuggle in with Lorenzo and then into airline management…is that where you are headed? Because historical revision of this scale sure doesn’t seem to serve any other purpose…
Your entire article, first of all, is incorrect on its face--while Carty said a lot of soothing crap about “working togetherâ€â€¦he was all about slapping labor whenever he could—the Reno sickout was caused almost entirely by Carty’s temper tantrum in the APA BOD room, where he lectured the APA that he would break their contract if he felt like it and then he broke the podium and tramped out of the room. It was recorded and made the rounds…what an immature baby. You really don’t get a good perspective on what these guys are really all about until you see them in action, personally, in an environment like that. Stupid. “1+1=3†stupid…
It is clear that you are either ignorant or are intentionally ignoring a pretty heavy volume of evidence that refutes the points you made in your article. Here is a list of things that Carty did or said here that you “forgot†about:
-- the Hazardous Materials Scandal in Miami, in which Carty became the first airline CEO ever…to be found Criminally Negligent in such a violation.
This man, Carty, willfully endangered lives…he was fined a record $8 million (AA, and ultimately, the employees, paid for this, as usual…)…and you sing his praises.
--the FBI Warning Circular about terrorists who would use bombs hidden in their shoes.
On December 22, 2001, thanks ONLY to the vigilance of a couple of flight attendants and the subsequent outstanding job accomplished by the Flight Dispatcher—Julie Robichaux—and the Crew of Captain Hans Montel (the first to deal with the new inflight-intercept process, in which one mistake means you are blown from the sky by your own countryman in an F-16) and with the help of a couple of helpful passengers as well--was AA Flight 63 saved from Shoe-Bomber Richard Reid and catastrophe.
--Robichaux was harassed (and later filed an AIR 21 Whistleblower Complaint) for her role in the criticism she related about her supervisor, who hung up her phone while she was on with NORAD and was so concerned with getting the aircraft re-packed and turned for the follow-on flight that he never called for a bomb squad in Boston…the police took Richard Reid off the plane and…the crew had to go get them back on the airplane to take care of the bomb! (There was a tape of the whole dispatch sequence…it was mysteriously “lost†by AMR, so Robichaux could not use it as evidence in her complaint.)
--She was also harassed about he role in the subsequent filming and distribution of the crew’s amazing story, steered by pilot Rob Sproc and then-APA Vice President Robert Ames, to video and mailed to all crew members so they would know the information and be forewarned, learn from the targeted crew’s experience. Your hero Brundage, then-Chief Pilot Bob Kudwa (a thug who was promoted by Carty solely as a reward for getting in a fist-fight with a pilot handing out union material in an approved area of the workplace in Chicago) and corrupt APA President John Darrah tried mightily to kill the video.
--Kudwa and Jane Allen LIED on camera, saying they had not known of the FBI warning. They later had to admit that they did know.
--Weeks later, Don Carty was in the press calling for less security, infamously saying “it isn’t worth the costâ€â€¦
--Let us never forget Maria Felix, a Dominican gate agent fired in 1998-99 for insisting on telling the Captain that an active Bomb Threat had just been issued on his flight by an anonymous caller. Carty fired her; the Captain, Robert Coderre, appealed for her job directly to Carty. He was ignored.
--Let us also remember that Carty headed up the ATA…and their efforts over the years to reduce airline security measures…so that we had such lax security at the airport.
--Let us also remember that Carty fought hard to prevent ANY additional ramp security, which remains today at pre-9/11 levels.
Blood on his hands…? I think so.
--He then immediately denied the Supplement Z provision of the pilot contract, a negotiated benefit above and beyond all other company benefit programs specifically to pay out a $500,000 benefit to the family of any pilot killed by sabotage or terrorist act. He slapped the widows of the 9/11 flight crews in the face, making them try to fight for the benefit. AMR used their corporate legal resources and defeated the shell-shocked widows, who could not have possibly reacted adequately in that time period…they weren’t expecting such treachery and lack of integrity from the company that their husbands loved and ultimately died for. A knife in the back, the company getting an assist from the traitorous Darrah.
--Oh…yes, lets not forget the travel scandal in 2002, where Carty flew his family to Hawaii first-class, displacing high-revenue, paying passengers while American was losing billions.
I’ve met Carty three times.
The first time, right after 9/11, after he had filed a WARN notice of immediate furloughs (rudely insulted union leaders who met to talk to him about their offers to help…dismissed them from his office without listening, simply handed them the notice he was running roughshod over their people days after the attacks)…and he was then in Washington to lobby hard for the airline bailout money.
He could not break away from his greedy activities to even attend the memorial at Annapolis for Captain Chick Burlingame…but when he began to get bad press about that, he hastily ordered a “fake†memorial so he and his entourage could attend one…held it in the ballroom of the Alexandria Mark hotel…where he could just take the elevator from his room to get there. He arrived and I witnessed the humiliating and embarrassing scene of two well-know “brown-noser†Captains from Washington actually elbowing each other out of the way to be the first one to leap into Carty’s arms and hug him as he entered the room. The “winner†was Captain (a liberal use of the title in this case) Mark Hetterrmann…the current AA Chief Pilot
(note: Hetterrmann apparently has not been medically qualified to fly for some time…so he is he really a pilot? Only in the same sense that Jeff Brundage is “a pilotâ€â€¦.oh, and please make sure that when you speak of Brundage’s past, you note that he was NEVER a pilot with American Airlines…he was NEVER a mainline pilot…but a commuter pilot at another carrier entirely…)
Carty slumped around the room in a “caricature of caring†with puppy-dog eyes. He surprised me by sneaking up behind (I was trying to avoid him—I had spent ten days in Boston counseling American and United crews and friends of the murdered flight crews from AA 11 and UAL 175) and tapping me on the shoulder and tried to shake my hand. I nearly slapped his face, thought better of it—refused to shake his limp hand and walked away with him standing there.
The second time, he was at the National Press Club in Washington DC; I was attending to lobby the press in support of more investigation regarding the AA 587 crash (then-NTSB Chief Marion Blakey was also attending the conference). Again, Carty attempted to shake my hand as he sallied over to the table where we sat. I again refused, politely; others did shake his hand, to my amazement...
The third time, I attended a 2002 Roast of Carty by the Dallas press, in uniform, in downtown Dallas, as part of a team of employees seeking dialogue with management on security issues (in typical arrogant fashion, Carty was actually refusing to meet with us to discuss security issues…) Unaware that we were to attend, the folks running the show had planned a cheesy “review†in skit style, where executive staffers were dressed up as dancing pilots; plenty of mocking, insulting derogatory lyrics toward employees in the skit…to the point where even Laura Miller and Roger Staubach both apologized publicly to us as we sat in the audience. Carty sat smugly…in typical arrogant fashion.
Mitch…you are completely wrong on this man. He is a reprehensible, incompetent and valueless person. He has no legitimate role in any legitimate industry. He was a complete and total failure at AA as CEO—it was one stupid catastrophe after another. His contention that somehow AA employees like him and will someday appreciate him is one of the more comical examples of Complete Denial that I’ve seen. Likewise, I know there is some infection in the Metroplex about the media treating corporate leaders and politicians as Rock Stars, placing these folks up on a pedestal…but you must eventually come around to the realization that the leaders of AA are simply in it to enrich themselves—and that is not good for AMR.
As Carty infamously told the APA BOD in the spring of 2003: “Guys, I’ll take it to Bankruptcy or not…I don’t care; either way, I win. The choice is yours.â€
Clearly, Carty cared little for the company—it is my firm belief that, given the example of US Airways, he would have taken AA into Bankruptcy after the 2003 consensual concessions…regardless; but, when he got the Secret Executive Bankruptcy Bonus Plan and the Senior Executive Retirement Plan caught in his fly, he had to step down and Arpey had no choice but to be the “White Knightâ€. The fact that he bought TWA and loaded us up with debt…and is now in business with a new company that will take advantage of that position—given the lack of integrity that Carty has demonstrated—more than a little suspicious. Of course, you will give him a pass there, too, won’t ya Mitch?
Intrepid reporting over there at the FW-ST…
So…it falls to folks with integrity to tell the true history of American Airlines.
I guess you’ve made your choice.
XXXX XXXXXXXX
First Officer, B-777
Mitch,
Your article is getting hammered on the pilot bulletin board—guys are just so amazed at how either
1) clueless you are to the true role Don Carty played with labor at AA…
2) disingenuous you are willing to be to perpetually ingratiate yourself to power-brokers.
Bruce Hicks parlayed his role as a journalist to snuggle in with Lorenzo and then into airline management…is that where you are headed? Because historical revision of this scale sure doesn’t seem to serve any other purpose…
Your entire article, first of all, is incorrect on its face--while Carty said a lot of soothing crap about “working togetherâ€â€¦he was all about slapping labor whenever he could—the Reno sickout was caused almost entirely by Carty’s temper tantrum in the APA BOD room, where he lectured the APA that he would break their contract if he felt like it and then he broke the podium and tramped out of the room. It was recorded and made the rounds…what an immature baby. You really don’t get a good perspective on what these guys are really all about until you see them in action, personally, in an environment like that. Stupid. “1+1=3†stupid…
It is clear that you are either ignorant or are intentionally ignoring a pretty heavy volume of evidence that refutes the points you made in your article. Here is a list of things that Carty did or said here that you “forgot†about:
-- the Hazardous Materials Scandal in Miami, in which Carty became the first airline CEO ever…to be found Criminally Negligent in such a violation.
This man, Carty, willfully endangered lives…he was fined a record $8 million (AA, and ultimately, the employees, paid for this, as usual…)…and you sing his praises.
--the FBI Warning Circular about terrorists who would use bombs hidden in their shoes.
On December 22, 2001, thanks ONLY to the vigilance of a couple of flight attendants and the subsequent outstanding job accomplished by the Flight Dispatcher—Julie Robichaux—and the Crew of Captain Hans Montel (the first to deal with the new inflight-intercept process, in which one mistake means you are blown from the sky by your own countryman in an F-16) and with the help of a couple of helpful passengers as well--was AA Flight 63 saved from Shoe-Bomber Richard Reid and catastrophe.
--Robichaux was harassed (and later filed an AIR 21 Whistleblower Complaint) for her role in the criticism she related about her supervisor, who hung up her phone while she was on with NORAD and was so concerned with getting the aircraft re-packed and turned for the follow-on flight that he never called for a bomb squad in Boston…the police took Richard Reid off the plane and…the crew had to go get them back on the airplane to take care of the bomb! (There was a tape of the whole dispatch sequence…it was mysteriously “lost†by AMR, so Robichaux could not use it as evidence in her complaint.)
--She was also harassed about he role in the subsequent filming and distribution of the crew’s amazing story, steered by pilot Rob Sproc and then-APA Vice President Robert Ames, to video and mailed to all crew members so they would know the information and be forewarned, learn from the targeted crew’s experience. Your hero Brundage, then-Chief Pilot Bob Kudwa (a thug who was promoted by Carty solely as a reward for getting in a fist-fight with a pilot handing out union material in an approved area of the workplace in Chicago) and corrupt APA President John Darrah tried mightily to kill the video.
--Kudwa and Jane Allen LIED on camera, saying they had not known of the FBI warning. They later had to admit that they did know.
--Weeks later, Don Carty was in the press calling for less security, infamously saying “it isn’t worth the costâ€â€¦
--Let us never forget Maria Felix, a Dominican gate agent fired in 1998-99 for insisting on telling the Captain that an active Bomb Threat had just been issued on his flight by an anonymous caller. Carty fired her; the Captain, Robert Coderre, appealed for her job directly to Carty. He was ignored.
--Let us also remember that Carty headed up the ATA…and their efforts over the years to reduce airline security measures…so that we had such lax security at the airport.
--Let us also remember that Carty fought hard to prevent ANY additional ramp security, which remains today at pre-9/11 levels.
Blood on his hands…? I think so.
--He then immediately denied the Supplement Z provision of the pilot contract, a negotiated benefit above and beyond all other company benefit programs specifically to pay out a $500,000 benefit to the family of any pilot killed by sabotage or terrorist act. He slapped the widows of the 9/11 flight crews in the face, making them try to fight for the benefit. AMR used their corporate legal resources and defeated the shell-shocked widows, who could not have possibly reacted adequately in that time period…they weren’t expecting such treachery and lack of integrity from the company that their husbands loved and ultimately died for. A knife in the back, the company getting an assist from the traitorous Darrah.
--Oh…yes, lets not forget the travel scandal in 2002, where Carty flew his family to Hawaii first-class, displacing high-revenue, paying passengers while American was losing billions.
I’ve met Carty three times.
The first time, right after 9/11, after he had filed a WARN notice of immediate furloughs (rudely insulted union leaders who met to talk to him about their offers to help…dismissed them from his office without listening, simply handed them the notice he was running roughshod over their people days after the attacks)…and he was then in Washington to lobby hard for the airline bailout money.
He could not break away from his greedy activities to even attend the memorial at Annapolis for Captain Chick Burlingame…but when he began to get bad press about that, he hastily ordered a “fake†memorial so he and his entourage could attend one…held it in the ballroom of the Alexandria Mark hotel…where he could just take the elevator from his room to get there. He arrived and I witnessed the humiliating and embarrassing scene of two well-know “brown-noser†Captains from Washington actually elbowing each other out of the way to be the first one to leap into Carty’s arms and hug him as he entered the room. The “winner†was Captain (a liberal use of the title in this case) Mark Hetterrmann…the current AA Chief Pilot
(note: Hetterrmann apparently has not been medically qualified to fly for some time…so he is he really a pilot? Only in the same sense that Jeff Brundage is “a pilotâ€â€¦.oh, and please make sure that when you speak of Brundage’s past, you note that he was NEVER a pilot with American Airlines…he was NEVER a mainline pilot…but a commuter pilot at another carrier entirely…)
Carty slumped around the room in a “caricature of caring†with puppy-dog eyes. He surprised me by sneaking up behind (I was trying to avoid him—I had spent ten days in Boston counseling American and United crews and friends of the murdered flight crews from AA 11 and UAL 175) and tapping me on the shoulder and tried to shake my hand. I nearly slapped his face, thought better of it—refused to shake his limp hand and walked away with him standing there.
The second time, he was at the National Press Club in Washington DC; I was attending to lobby the press in support of more investigation regarding the AA 587 crash (then-NTSB Chief Marion Blakey was also attending the conference). Again, Carty attempted to shake my hand as he sallied over to the table where we sat. I again refused, politely; others did shake his hand, to my amazement...
The third time, I attended a 2002 Roast of Carty by the Dallas press, in uniform, in downtown Dallas, as part of a team of employees seeking dialogue with management on security issues (in typical arrogant fashion, Carty was actually refusing to meet with us to discuss security issues…) Unaware that we were to attend, the folks running the show had planned a cheesy “review†in skit style, where executive staffers were dressed up as dancing pilots; plenty of mocking, insulting derogatory lyrics toward employees in the skit…to the point where even Laura Miller and Roger Staubach both apologized publicly to us as we sat in the audience. Carty sat smugly…in typical arrogant fashion.
Mitch…you are completely wrong on this man. He is a reprehensible, incompetent and valueless person. He has no legitimate role in any legitimate industry. He was a complete and total failure at AA as CEO—it was one stupid catastrophe after another. His contention that somehow AA employees like him and will someday appreciate him is one of the more comical examples of Complete Denial that I’ve seen. Likewise, I know there is some infection in the Metroplex about the media treating corporate leaders and politicians as Rock Stars, placing these folks up on a pedestal…but you must eventually come around to the realization that the leaders of AA are simply in it to enrich themselves—and that is not good for AMR.
As Carty infamously told the APA BOD in the spring of 2003: “Guys, I’ll take it to Bankruptcy or not…I don’t care; either way, I win. The choice is yours.â€
Clearly, Carty cared little for the company—it is my firm belief that, given the example of US Airways, he would have taken AA into Bankruptcy after the 2003 consensual concessions…regardless; but, when he got the Secret Executive Bankruptcy Bonus Plan and the Senior Executive Retirement Plan caught in his fly, he had to step down and Arpey had no choice but to be the “White Knightâ€. The fact that he bought TWA and loaded us up with debt…and is now in business with a new company that will take advantage of that position—given the lack of integrity that Carty has demonstrated—more than a little suspicious. Of course, you will give him a pass there, too, won’t ya Mitch?
Intrepid reporting over there at the FW-ST…
So…it falls to folks with integrity to tell the true history of American Airlines.
I guess you’ve made your choice.
XXXX XXXXXXXX
First Officer, B-777
