Honoring Our Fallen Members

Every pilot goes to work with the goal of delivering our passengers, cargo, and crewmembers safely to their destinations. We rely on the system that ALPA has helped build over its nearly 95-year history to provide checks that lessen the possibility of accidents and serious incidents from occurring. Together with industry stakeholders, we’ve built an incredibly effective aviation safety net. But over the past 15 months, we’ve experienced firsthand that this safety net isn’t foolproof. We must be ever vigilant to keep our passengers, aircrews, and the communities under our wings safe.

I write this column just days after we lost two of our Jazz Aviation pilots, Capt. Antoine Forest and F/O MacKenzie Gunther, when their aircraft collided with an aircraft rescue-and-firefighting truck while landing at LaGuardia Airport. As a union, we’re mourning the loss of these two members who were at the start of their promising careers.

In the past 15 months, we’ve gone from fatal accidents happening so rarely to two occurring within months. Now more than ever, the importance of using our voice to make safety paramount is clear. As with accidents throughout our history, we must turn these tragedies into action. We must honor those whose lives were cut short by making their legacy one of safety.

The aftermath of an accident represents a somber opportunity to strengthen our aviation safety net, and doing this often requires aviation stakeholders helping to move the process forward until our safety goals are achieved. We experienced this with the PSA Flight 5342 tragedy. Safety data warned that potentially dangerous situations existed near Washington National Airport, and although technology is available to mitigate the safety risk, it’s yet to be required on aircraft. While we’ve made some strides to lessen risk around Washington National, including removing helicopters from the crowded airspace, there’s still more work to do.

Along with members of the families who lost loved ones on PSA Flight 5342 and allies in Congress, we’ve been vocal in demanding fixes that would have given the PSA pilots the advanced warning and situational awareness necessary to prevent the tragedy. Safety requires that everyone be provided with the tools to understand, identify, and avoid risk. In honor of PSA pilots Capt. Jonathan Campos and Honorary Capt. Samuel Lilley, the first officer on Flight 5342, we continue to advocate for the required implementation of the technology that likely could have saved their lives and the lives of 65 others.

Responding to an accident, assisting with the investigation, and supporting the families of our lost members is some of the most critical and demanding work we do as a union. Our profession is a tight-knit family and for many of us, it’s more than a job—it’s our life’s passion.

I’d like to recognize the ALPA members and staff who’ve worked tirelessly to aid our union’s response to tragedy over the past 15 months. I especially commend Capt. Wendy Morse, the Association’s first vice president and national safety coordinator, for her leadership through these tragedies. This work is difficult; but across our union, we stepped up to honor our lost colleagues and continue our safety efforts.

Our commitment to our fallen colleagues was on full display as hundreds of ALPA members paid their respects during the repatriation flights for Capt. Forest and F/O Gunther. As a community, we made it clear that 80,000-plus Association members deeply mourn their loss and continue to show up so that no family will ever again experience the pain of losing a loved one in an airline accident.

In honor of those who perished in aviation accidents over the last 15 months and throughout our history, I’m proud to stand with ALPA members to continue the fight for safety. Our commitment to “Schedule with Safety” is more than a slogan; it’s infused within everything we do, and this commitment is how we’ll honor the memory of our lost colleagues.

In the April Issue: