In an effort to find the truth behind the reported inflammatory comments supposedly made by a SWA Captain, I have been in touch with the Communication Chairman for the SWAPA, Roy White. Below are parts of two emails I received from him yesterday. These are posted with his permission.
"Not at all, feel, free to post…….as an aside, SWAPA has made the offer to sit down with the reporter & to compare phone records since he confirmed with us he has had spoken to Jeff on the phone. For phone records covering the length of time that Mr. Wald states he conducted the interview, there are no inbound or outbound phone calls to the NYT or to Mr. Wald. The pilot in questioned also reviewed his cell phone records & there were no calls that match up to the timeframe or phone number that Mr. Wald states is his. In effort to be above board with confirming this fact but to minimize the invasion of privacy that has already occurred to this pilot as a result of this erroneous report, a designated third party individual is scheduled to review the pilot’s phone record and will report back to SWAPA to confirm the statements of the pilot as further evidence no phone call occurred. BTW, the pilot has already begun receiving hate mail and abusive phone calls from pilots who are either unaware of the other side of the story or have chosen to vent their anger towards Southwest upon our pilot. Mr. Wald and the NYT will be apprised of the incredible damage they have done to this man’s life and to our profession by printing such incendiary comments that so far have proven to be not spoken by our pilot."
"Thanks for contacting me again. I had received the post from another Delta pilot who had contacted me also. While Mr. Wald makes the statement in a rather confident matter, the evidence collected so far and the lack of anything other than a firm denial on the part of the NYT, has not altered the belief by SWAPA that Mr. Wald’s reporting is inaccurate. Mr. Wald either got the quote from another pilot or for some unknown reason fabricated the quote. Without divulging too much more I can say with even more certainty than when we spoke before I’m confident the pilot in question never uttered those quotes. We are giving the NYT sufficient time to do their own internal investigation and will cooperate fully with them to find the true facts regarding this issue.
The press release from ALPA on 10 March (I attached it) reiterates the faith ALPA has in the convictions held by the president of SWAPA the comments were never uttered by the pilot quoted in the article. We have no reason to believe, unless Mr. Wald wishes to bring forth more evidence which he so far has failed to do, that any pilot from Southwest made these comments.
We are continuing to pursue the issue with the NYT and I will keep you advised of where the issue stands. I thank you again for your sharing of these comments with me and the opportunity to present our side of the issue.
FO Roy White
Chair, Communication Committee Southwest Airlines Pilot Association"
