Data from flight-tracking website FlightAware showed that more than 1,400 flights were canceled and more than 17,000 were delayed during the July 4 holiday weekend. The country's airlines, including American, Delta and United, cut back services to many small and midsize cities across the U.S. due to pilot shortages.
News website the Federalist attributed the crisis to three coalescing events: Obama-era regulatory changes, Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine mandates and the forced retirement of pilots during the pandemic.
When Barack Obama became president, pilots needed only 250 hours of flight experience to be licensed to fly U.S. passenger and cargo airplanes. But in 2010, Obama signed a six-fold increase of those training into law. The pilots are now required to get 1,500 hours of experience. The said policy also required an additional 750 hours for aviators who received military training.
These massive changes had been enacted by the Democrat-heavy House and Senate during that time.
Furthermore, some pilots are concerned about the airline vaccine mandates. American pilot Greg Pearson revealed in an interview that shortly after he received his COVID-19 vaccine, he was rushed to a hospital due to heart problems.
"I went to the ER where they quickly hooked me up to EKG IVs, did blood work quickly, and determined that I was in atrial fibrillation. It's the major cause of stroke."
Pearson said he could have had a stroke at 100 feet while trying to land the airplane and could have pushed down on the stick before the person next to him could do anything. It could have been over for a lot of people, he noted.
"There's a number of pilots out there who are fearful to come forward and speak. They are fearful of retribution. There are guys that are going to work with crushing pains in their chests and their heads and they're scared that they're going to lose their careers," he said. (Related: Pilot whistleblower: 'My colleagues are dropping like flies with crushing chest pains.')
There are also other smaller problems, such as the Federal Aviation Administration still requiring 10-day mandatory quarantine for pilots even though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention only recommends five days.
Moreover, the Obama administration imposed strict limits on the number of hours that licensed pilots can fly, making it more difficult to recruit pilots for the thousands of flights every day. In any 365-day period, aviators can't fly more than an average of 2.7 hours per day.
Other pilots were offered early retirement packages during the pandemic's collapse in travel demand, despite the fact that the airlines received $50 billion in taxpayer-funded pandemic relief money.
Vaccine mandates lead to termination and forced resignation of airline employees
Airline employees were also terminated or forced to resign for their refusal to submit to the vaccine mandates.
United Airlines said in September last year that 593 of its employees faced termination for failing to comply with its COVID-19 vaccination policy. More than 96 percent of the airline's 67,000-person workforce complied with the vaccine requirement, and hundreds of them quickly uploaded their proof of vaccination as they feared losing their job.
About 2,000 of the workforce asked to be exempted for religious or medical reasons.
"We know for some, that decision was a reluctant one. But there is no doubt in our minds that some of you will have avoided a future hospital stay, or even death because you got vaccinated," the company's CEO Scott Kirby and President Brett Hart told United employees in a note.
Meanwhile, Allied Pilots Association (APA), a union representing American Airline pilots, urged airline companies to find "alternate means of compliance" with the regard to mandatory inoculations. Otherwise, the group warned, this will prompt mass resignations.
"Some of APA's members are unable to undergo vaccination for documented medical reasons, while others are reluctant to get vaccinated based upon concerns about the potential for career-ending side effects," the union said in a letter. "To force those pilots out of their positions, rather than offering viable alternatives will have adverse consequences upon their families and the airline industry as a whole."
Visit MedicalMartialLaw.com for more news about vaccine mandates.
Watch the below video that talks about American Airlines canceling service in three cities amid pilot shortages.
This video is from the Puretrauma357 channel on Brighteon.com.
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