Delta Airlines to 'look into' pilot who blamed Pete Buttigieg for ground stop in flight announcement
ATLANTA, GEROGIA: after a pilot at Delta Airlines apparently blamed US Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for a grounded plane, the airline has now said they are 'looking into' the matter. Flights across Florida were apparently pushed to stay on the ground Monday, January 2 due to air traffic control system issues. As the Federal Aviation Administration worked to get to the root of the problem, measures to decrease air traffic were taken to minimize any happening of accidents. This caused delays for passengers all over the country.
This forced ground stay of planes comes after a tough few weeks for the patrons of airlines across the United States, after a winter storm had caused more flight delays and cancellations around the festive season and more so close to Christmas day. With the series of troubles, one airline pilot from Delta Airlines had apparently thought it fit to blame Pete Buttigieg and had quipped about it on his announcement to passengers.
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While the comment was meant to be a lighthearted joke on the situation of the past few weeks, it did not go well with all the passengers. According to Newsweek, one of the passengers named Stewart Lucas took to Twitter to make his displeasure known and also raised concerns about charged political remarks being made on official public announcements and how it was inappropriate.
"@Delta it is not okay for the pilot of flight 2274 ATL-RSW to blame a Florida ground stop on @PeteButtigieg," he tweeted. "Completely unacceptable political dig just made twice at gate over loud speaker." The tweet has since been deleted.
While it has not been made public what exactly the pilot said, Delta has fired employees in the past for making politically charged remarks before. A spokesperson for Delta Airlines said that the company is currently looking into the matter. "Delta will look into this allegation," the spokesperson wrote in a statement.
It must be noted that airline employees are protected by their constitutional rights with regards to criticism of politicians, but their employing companies are entitled to make their own policies about their conduct at the workplace. There have been many instances of employees being fired for political remarks, which are often taken as alienating those who do not share the same views.