The Southwest Airlines pilot whose anti-gay, misogynistic rant was captured over a stuck cockpit microphone in March has issued an apology to company employees. The pilot has been identified as 46-year-old Capt. James Fritzen Taylor of Argyle, north of Fort Worth. According to media reports, Taylor is married and lives with his wife and two children, ages 18 and 20, in an exclusive subdivision off Interstate 35. KPRC Channel 2 in Houston, which broke the story about Taylor’s rant, has obtained a copy of his apology dated today. Below is the full text:
June 28, 2011
To All Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants and all Employees:
Because of the impact of my comments, I wanted to communicate with you directly. Please accept my most sincere apology for the inappropriate and disrespectful remarks I made in March with an open microphone. I deeply regret the derogatory remarks I made and the hurt I have caused — I take full responsibility for those comments. It was truly insensitive of me and I would like all of you to know that from now on, I will show nothing but the utmost respect during my interactions with all employees.In addition, I would like to extend a special apology to all Flight Attendants, and especially those of Houston. I hope you will allow me to maintain a working relationship with all of you that will provide me the opportunity to extend an individual, personal apology to each one of you whenever we fly together. Please know that this event has forever changed me and I hope that others can learn from my mistake. I have learned a much-needed lesson to be more sensitive of others and I hope you will see me as a more tolerant and considerate person. I am proud to be employed by Southwest Airlines and I am committed to representing our Company, and its employees in the most professional way possible.
With My Sincere Regards,
Captain James Taylor
Seriously? He keeps his job? Resolved: I will never fly Southwest Airlines again. Ever.
I agree, not so sure he should be able to keep his job. when so many flight attendants and pilots have been laid off or forced to early retirement these past several years, someone like this keeping his job? seems southwest made a terrible mistake in keeping him.
I agree with him. Whatever happened to freedom to have your own opinion. It was a private conversation accidentally recorded. I see no problem
If I were to have that conversation in my workplace with coworkers I would be fired! I wonder how his wife and kids feel about his need for “company” on his trips.
I’m sure no apology would have been forthcoming, if the transcript hadn’t been released. Also, I’m not sure how any “sensitivity training” will alter this pilot’s view of gays and heavy set older women. I can only imagine how angry his wife and how embarssed his children must be . I’m also disappointed to know that he is still flying the skies with Southwest. That might explain the noticeable lowered morale and lack of customer service among flight attendants. The lack ofcustomer service with a smile was so evident on my recent flight from Boston to Chicago and Chicago to San Diego.
Captain James Taylor, where does this come from?
Dear Captain Taylor:
Thank you so very much for posting your letter of apology. I readily noticed therein that you accepted full responsibility for your actions. Their is not one person, P.C. or not, who has not committed an error similar likewise. Therefore, as the flying public and also as a retired commercial air freight pilot, be it known that you have my vote of confidence in furtherance of your aviation career. Keep looking up sir and I wish you all the best!
To Mrs Taylor and his kids. I am so sorry. Your are in our prayers. Ma’am you can do much better. I would have him tested.
Who cares? Don’t we have bigger issues to deal with?
ok … hi im sorry i killed all those people i hope i can work with you again sometime…that the next letter he will send out after drinking in a bar all night be fore he flies,, i guess thats ok with swa also ;;; brad from yuma…
If this moron keeps his job, I will never fly Southwest again. Anyone of us who did this on the job would be fired!
BTW, i do not accept or believe your apology.
I’m gay, I’m glad this happened to him and I’m glad he gets to keep his job. I’ve been intolerant of others before and when it was all said and done it didn’t hurt anyone but me. I dunno know who taught him what he thinks about gays or women or who he should be as a man but he may not have been so lucky in life to have open minded people there to teach him. This may have been a good look in the mirror for him. He says he’s sorry. He says it’s changed him. What more do you want? Just forgive him and YOU will feel better.
I think he is sorry he got caught not for what he said
I think he was angry because he didn’t have the blonde young flight attendants on his flight…he missed his days of being able to come on to the flight attendants of days gone by….Southwest Airlines needs to lay him off…but he was saying in private or so he thought…….Hes a bigot who cares what happens to him…..
what about his wife////??????? WHAT ABOUT HIS DRINKING////////// WHAT ABOUT HIS HATE FOR GAYS /// i guess south west really airlines doesnt care,,,,,,,
Next time he should make sure the mics are closed before broadcasting a private conversation no matter what the topic is. I also think he is totally within his rights to have his opinions no matter what they are. I’m sick of all these politically correct people saying whats right whats wrong and also promoting homosexuality. That’s really hypocritical.
The hardest part about accepting our mistakes and apologizing, is that most people turn to be more cruel and disrespecful at you, thinking what you did excuses them from being a worst person than you were at them. I hope the crew he offended is able to be coherent and don’t take relatiation against him.
.
@Justin of Houston. He certainly does not need my forgiveness. He needs help and I hope Southwest Airlines has him attend sensitivity trainings. Had he berated people of color in his rant, where do you think this would be right now? It is very important to speak out about issues like this. That is how things change. I am praying for him and his family.
@anyone,
If everyone who said something stupid got fired, no one would be working. If everyone who disagreed with someone elses opinion, however distasteful, got to assign punishment, again, no one would be working. If ppl think that just because this guy mentioned a bar in his rant, he’s an alcoholic or drinks before climbing into the cockpit, those ppl are making things up in their head, cuz nothing in that rant implicates him as a drinker, let alone an alcohol abuser, and even less, a drunk pilot.
In this day of digital technology, that rant you had while shopping at the mall about your boss, to a friend over the phone, may have been captured on another persons cell phone. What is your reaction going to be when that goes viral on the web and hits the newws, then your boss finds out, then HR calls you into the office, then you’re applying for unemployment benefits….? Are you going to think that is fair when it comes down on you? And these other ppl have no pity for your situation? It was a private conversation, right? You didn’t intend anyone else to hear, right? Too bad, the mob has spoken, suck it up…
His bosses and those who care about SWA’s PR image have decided to keep him on and they seem to be more tolerant of this mistake. If they’re not angry enough to fire him, or the legal deparment said the aftermath would be worse if he were fired, or he just found out he has lung cancer and his venting got out of control, and he apologized, but doesn’t want something else going public….
I hope an innocent person doesn’t end up with you negative posters on the jury… I pity the intolerant. Don’t fly SWA, someone else will buy your seat. Next time I fly, I might go SWA just to pay a few positive compliments on the flight attendants. Go ahead and boycott the airline and cause 5% those insulted flight attendants to get laid off…
Ooooooooooohhh, you didn’t think the flight attendants worked for a different company than the pilots, did you? Your reactionary ideal to never fly SWA again is going to cost innocent ppl their jobs. Stellar thought process, ppl.
I think this guy is gonna be lucky to remain married. He;s gonna have to endure the stares and disapproving comments of his coworkers and look them in the eye for the rest of his carreer with SWA. Might that be punishment enough?
Mikus
Why didn’t his apology cover his remarks on overweight persons? He called then “Grandes” and then claimed to hate “100% of them”. I think those remarks where the worst because he actually expressed a consciously bigoted, and biased, hatred of a group of people. The others he merely made insensitive remarks about.
@William
You’re right. He does not need your forgiveness. People who are ashamed usually need to forgive themselves and accept that there are still going to be people like yourself out there who will define them by a single act. No matter how much you may want to see him as such, he simply is not a monster. He’s just a guy with a job who needs to take a look how he values the people around him.
The incentive for you to forgive him is not to HIS benefit; it’s to release you of your own judgements and anger.
@Brian You make a good point. But he was making more than ‘mere’ insensitive remarks about other groups.
@Justin of Houston You seem to want to make me the bad guy here because I reacted to a hateful and bigoted stream of dialogue that became public. I am defining him by a single act? I am making him a monster? Where did that come from? How can you possibly glean that from my reactions to what this man said? Perhaps, this is something you have done yourself in the past that you transferred on to my comments? I am simply talking about what he said. You were incorrect if you think my reactions are anything more than that.
It is clear this man needs help. I see that SWA did require him to go through diversity training. That is good news. And don’t worry for me Justin. I do not harbor any anger or judgements about this man, but I am entitled to disagree and react to his comments.
@Mikus What you said is so true… “I think this guy is gonna be lucky to remain married. He;s gonna have to endure the stares and disapproving comments of his coworkers and look them in the eye for the rest of his carreer with SWA…..” That’s why I hope the diversity training SWA required him to take will be an avenue to help him heal the relationship with his family and co-workers. And yes Mikus it was a knee jerk reaction on my part to say I would not fly SWA again because of this…thank you for pointing that out!
@William : What I meant to say was that his comments on women and gays where derogatory, but his comments on overweight persons where a directed attack and even an admitted act of “hatred”. This guy should be fired. Can you imagine the resentment his co-workers are going to have, and the strained relations will inevitably spill over into the quality of passenger service.
A lot of you are just downright hypocrites. If everything you have said all your lives would have been recorded, you would all be unemployed.
The pilot is certainly entitled to have any opinion he wants and not be fired because of it. Others trying to control what goes on inside each individuals mind are the real danger.
Hey….the truth hurts sometimes. The airlines aren’t into service anymore. I like SWA and will fly them because they must have honest pilots.
@DAVIDT, I couldn’t agree more – we’re all guilty of hate in some form, whether we’re talking about other groups, races, religions, etc. How many of you have called your boss or a coworker something less than nice? whether it’s in the heat of the moment or otherwise.
my question all along is – what about the other pilot? Taylor obviously wasn’t talking to himself – he just happens to be the one that got caught – I would love to know what the other pilot was saying – and you know he could have told him to shut up once they found out they were on an open mic.
His diversity training is going to stretch much further than a one day classroom event. Once he faces his coworkers, his training will be reiterated again and again. At first I thought he should be fired, then after reading the comments it gave me a minute to think deeper. He will be “his” best by working with the people he offended. He will have to deal with the shame daily which is the best way to truly learn a lesson. Eventually, I believe if he is sincere in his apology he will be forgiven and the rant forgotten. (After all, he is human) This will make him a better person. If he had been fired it would have fueled his hatred and he would have continued to justify his remarks. He will now have to walk a very narrow line.
@ William
You may just be right. I did imagine you feeling the way I described because I have done so to others in the past. I was surprised to find a comment directed specifically @me. The first thing you say is “He certainly does not need my forgiveness.” It was out of place in how begrudging it was as I said nothing of him needing your forgiveness.
You also seemed to call for a higher severity of punishment asking “Had he berated people of color in his rant, where do you think this would be right now?” What on earth could that matter? Just because people are more willing to react in anger when it comes to racial (“people of color”) discrimination does not mean that fist-shaking should be adopted across the board.
I’m going to pull a d*ck move here and post this then unsubscribe to these comments. I didn’t intend to become part of a tiresome personal dialogue. That and I couldn’t resist the adolescent desire to have the last word. Respond if you must, just not to me.
Soooo…you’re not allowed to voice your own opinion / beliefs now?
We’re not allowed to hate anyone. There are types of people that I hate and I make
no apologies for it. I’d never take it to a level of violence but no one can tell me that
I’m not allowed to hate someone for whatever reason I deem appropriate.
@ WIlliam
Why does he need help? You have your beliefs and he has his. What makes yours right and his wrong?
If he doesn’t like a certain type of individual, who are you (are anyone else) to tell him he’s wrong?
You’re going to pray for him and his family? That would be offensive to some. You better watch out or someone might tell you that you are wrong for doing that and demand you go to sensitivity training.
He needs help because he isn’t bright enough to now when a peice of equipment is off or on and when to keep his mouth shut. When I fly I am not paying to hear an employees personal opinion. If he had said it in private this would be no problem, but he was so unintellegent he left the mic on? I don’t want to fly with a pilot that doesn’t know off and on. FIRE HIM!