By Julie Johnsson | Football
fans on some United Airlines flights Sunday evening were left in the
dark as to the Super Bowl’s outcome after dispatchers refused to share
game updates with pilots.
Pilots were angered by the black-out of a football game that drew
record audiences, the result of an apparent communications break down
within United. But the incident also highlighted the increased
sensitivity over distractions to airline workers performing critical
functions, experts said.
United pilots traditionally have provided regular alerts to passengers during major sporting events. Some also tune Channel 9, the carrier’s dedicated broadcast channel, to fuzzy AM radio broadcasts so that passengers can tune in to a game.
But that wasn’t the case Sunday. Pilots who requested scores were told that they wouldn’t be provided updates via their in-flight computers. Dispatchers also refused to provide the frequencies of AM stations along their flight paths.
United says the flap was the result of a misunderstanding by some workers in the giant control center outside of Chicago that acts as the company’s nerve center. Don Dillman, vice president for United’s operations control center, instructed staffers not to watch the game on the oversized television screens that provide constant weather and flight updates.
“While we understand that some our employees wanted to watch the Super Bowl, the safety of our customers and employees has to take precedence,” said United spokeswoman Megan McCarthy. “We only stated that the monitors in the operations center need to be used for operational purposes, and there was never any direction to not relay information about the game to our flight crews.”
But U.S. carriers are particularly skittish over the issue of worker distractions following revelations that pilots of a Colgan Air jet that crashed in Buffalo last year breached rules limiting cockpit communications and texting.
“We’ve been sensitized to the issue of concentrating on what’s at hand,” said aviation consultant Robert Mann. “This is another reason to have connectivity in the cabin. Then the flight crew really doesn’t have to worry about this stuff.”
United doesn’t offer satellite television on its jets and only offers Wi-Fi access on a limited number of trans-continental flight.
Still, pilots found ways to get around Sunday’s Super Bowl black-out. “I got my information from American Airlines,” said one pilot who was in the air Sunday and who asked not to be identified. “The American guys were on the same radio frequency. I just asked them how the game was going.”
Tune in any Air Route Traffic Control Center frequency on a Saturday or Sunday during football season and you’ll hear pilots asking for scores. And controllers provide too. Obviously if they’re going through a busy sector, that sort of talk ceases.
It’s no big deal.
I’ll bet most people on the plane recorded it and would rather not have it spoiled. Pilots are so full of themselves that probably never occurs to them.
Hey Captain, people don’t want to hear you. We don’t care what the wind speed is where we’re landing. We don’t care that the Grand Canyon is somewhere below the clouds. Fly the plane and let us sleep.
Communicating game scores to pilots isn’t much different from providing gate information so that passengers can make it to connecting flights. The flight crew has an overriding priority to getting passengers to their destinations safely. If their workload permits, neither scores nor other passenger information should be a problem. We would expect a proficient and well-trained crew to use their own good judgment whether and what to communicate depending on their flight circumstances at any given time. “Sully” Sullenberger’s successful ditching of US Airways 1549 in the Hudson without serious passenger casualties is a perfect example of flight crew proficiency and communications excellence.
I was flying on United on Sunday during the game. The Pilot came on about 5 – 8 times during the 2 hour flight to update us on the score. When we landed, he was even giving us a little play by play on what was happening…
We were flying American Airlines from Puerto Rico and missed the whole game. We didn’t get any updates from the flight crew, but I felt they had more important things to do. As far as the air traffic control group is concerned, I’d just as soon they took care of business and let us wait until we were on the ground for game updates and hi-lites.
When the VP of the department says the game is a distraction, Dispatchers take that advice to heart. It was a busy night and any dispatchers who were otherwise occupied, did not send up scores. It is that simple. Our primary responsibility is the safe planing and operation of all United flights, not inflight entertainment. We send scores when it is appropriate.
As evidenced by the comments above, people were still getting scores. I am hard pressed to see why any of this is an issue.
Craig Symons
President, PAFCA-UAL (representing the Flight Dispatchers at United Airlines)
Http://www.pafca-ual.org
P.S. Nice of you to get a quote from a dispatcher.
Craig -
I agree this this article is a non-issue. I will assume that Metra or the CTA wasn’t providing updates regarding the game.
Or, maybe they should be investigated as well. I think Julie just didn’t want to write a story about the huge snow storm, so she had to come up with something.
Cripes. I meant planning of United flights, not planing.
See http://www.dispatcher.org for more info on Dispatchers/Flight Controllers if you are curious.
I was on a United flight during the first part of the game. The pilot put the AM radio feed on. I guess according to Craig the pilot was putting us in grave danger by not focussing on flying whil tuning it in. I will be execting a full refund from United as a result.
Mark,
I don’t think I ever said that. I was talking about performing our jobs on a busy night when the VP himself acknowledged that the game could be a major distraction. That has no relation to what the pilot chooses to do.
Also, isn’t Channel 9 awesome? Not only can you use it to broadcast football games, but listening to ATC is a great way to learn more about the flight if you are so inclined.
Well done, United!
Pilots should not be distracted.
And for the passengers in this instant communication era- is it really going to kill you to wait an hour or two to hear the outcome? Give me a break.
If the game is so important, then don’t fly while it is being played.
Some of us don’t watch every move of overpaid celebrities – athletes or entertainers – with baited breath. Sounds like those United flights were better than average.
the pilots can put channel 9 on an AM frequency and still focus on their job of flying while passengers are entertained(channel 9 is some type of radio channel). My fondest memory of UA was flying the night the Sox clinced the AL championship in 2005 and being able to listen to the game during the flight. They also did this when the Cubs were in the playoffs. If the can’t offer satellite tv, then giving passengers the radio broadcast on a channel reserved for such programming (or air traffic control) seems like a no brainer.
BetterThingsToDo, look up the difference between “baited” and “bated.” It’s “bated breath”:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1414/what-is-the-origin-of-bated-breath
Can’t blame the dispatchers for following the directions of superiors to concentrate on their primary tasks.
Blame the United executives who had to know when the Super Bowl was, (I bet the guys in pricing did), and did not plan accordingly, such as prior to departure providing each flight with the list of AM stations carrying the game on their route.
Of course as this decision was made in Chicago, everyone is missing the obvious, the United VP is a Bears fan who hates the Colts.
Stopped flying United 6 years back due to their rates and lack of service. I am glad I made that decision!
BetterThingsToDo | February 9, 2010 7:15 PM | Reply
If the game is so important, then don’t fly while it is being played.
Some of us don’t watch every move of overpaid celebrities – athletes or entertainers – with baited breath. Sounds like those United flights were better than average.
______________________________________________
Obviously you do not travel for business. Get a life!
United concerned about safety? Laughable.
“Communicating game scores to pilots isn’t much different from providing gate information so that passengers can make it to connecting flights.”
- Humanist | February 9, 2010 4:03 PM | Reply
Exactly. Except, ONE has to do with the task at hand – i.e. TRANSPORTATION; and the OTHER has to do with RECREATION.
So, NO! They ARE quite different.
I’m pretty sure the passengers were just thankful to arrive safely to their destination. It’s not like they were not aware they were traveling on Super Bowl Sunday.
Typical for old dinosaur legacy carriers
OK, I have a question.
How come whenever I see news about what is happening with an airline like Delta or Southwest or some other airline, it is always about improving service or new features be added or something along those lines, but lately, I see United in the news and it is always something negative, like what this story is reporting here?
This has happened almost every single time I see a story about United in the news, and again, it is always something of a negative nature. It is as if the news media has some sort of animosity toward the airline.
Someone told me this negativity against United has something to do with an incident that happened a long while back involving Oprah Winfrey, but I can’t see how anything involving her would result is this type of negativity against United by the major press.
So how about reporting something positive happening at United for a change?
You’re flying. Who cares? If you want to hear the scores or see the game, book a flight for another time.
Why is this news?
Thank goodness somebody had the common sense to block out this stuff. If the pilots are mad, quit! Passengers mad, tooo bad! There is more to life than football or haven’t you poor souls figured that out yet.
Was this their biggest gripe for the day? God help us all.
Rob – you must be a miserable miserable person!!
United is so not concerned with passanger safety or comfort. As someone who flies regularly for work, United has become an absolute joke in our industry. Passengers are the least of their priorities, and to CGull – United is the worst of the airlines, and that is why you don’t see anything positive about them. My recent had a horrible experience, and their response was pretty much – too bad!
Come on, this isn’t that complex – it’s just small people being petty. The folks at the dispatch center were peeved they couldn’t watch the game on TV so they refused to pass on any info to the folks in the air by saying “we aren’t allowed” – even though they knew it wasn’t true.
As a dispatcher for a major airline who was working that night, its as simple as this…
if you have the time, and you want to extend the courtesy of non-flight related information to the crews, then its at your discresion. But the information is just that, a courtesy, and if pressing matters like safety of flight and safety of passengers, weather, even company paperwork are involved, a simple “unable at this time” is absolutely correct.
I think all dispatchers want the best for our crews and passengers…I supplied game updates to them that night until a passenger on one of my flights had a medical emergency and I had to put 19 flights on hold for game scores. Bottom line, if you absolutely must know the score to the game, dont fly during the game.
Amazing how I can be searching for one thing on Google and come across this site. I’d sure glad I did because you’ve got the best information I’ve seen.