CBS Anchor Ed O’Keefe Asks United CEO Point-Blank: ‘Is It Safe to Be Flying In and Out of Newark?’

CBS anchor Ed O’Keefe said on the contemporary issues at Newark airport on Sunday’s episode of Face the Nation, together with interviewing the CEO of United Airlines Scott Kirby and asking him point-blank if it was protected to fly in and out of Newark.

The most recent outage at Newark Liberty World Airport came about overnight and led to a 45-minute ground stop.

In keeping with CNN aviation and transportation correspondent Pete Muntean, it was once an air site visitors control equipment outage — and the 0.33 previously few weeks, together with prior considerations regarding radar and radio tools.

O’Keefe started out the express through reporting on the new outage to introduce an interview with Kirby. The interview was pre-taped on Saturday, before probably the most recent outage but they have been nonetheless ready to discuss the previous two.

“Newark is a big hub for United Airlines,” said O’Keefe. “We spoke Saturday, earlier than this latest incident, with the airline’s CEO Scott Kirby and asked him, is it secure to be flying out and in of Newark at this time?”

“It’s absolutely is secure at Newark and in your entire country,” replied Kirby, offering this clarification:

The reason is when most of these outages occur, we train for them, now we have backup strategies, we have backups to backups to backups, to keep the skies safe, which is all the time the number 1 precedence.

In scenarios like this, when the [May 9] radar outage came about at Newark, what happens is, the pilots search for alternative frequencies, they go to alternative facilities with various radars.

And so they actually have a machine within the plane the place they are able to see — it’s the similar of radar — they see their position within the air, in the sky, and all of the other airplane round them. What we do is slow the entire gadget down, which is disruptive to shoppers but it is solely secure.

Kirby added that United had “proactively diminished flights” at Newark, and the FAA used to be working with other airlines to coordinate similar reductions. “Pruning the collection of flights creates more room at the airport, allows the airport to operate effectively,” he stated. “There may be additionally runway development occurring over June 15. With a purpose to double the capability when that happens.”

O’Keefe cited that pruning the schedule would mean much less supply with demand regularly growing as summer time starts. “Doesn’t that probably mean the cost of a ticket goes up?”

Kirby stated that was now not going down because “there’s much less demand as a result of there’s concerns about safety,” and the airline had put bigger airplanes on Newark routes. “A bigger plane, fewer flights, larger airplanes to care for the collection of seats that now we have flying out and in of Newark.”

O’Keefe asked about passengers’ safety considerations, as a result of United can keep watch over their plane, pilots, and time table, “but you don’t control who is within the tower and how many individuals are in the tower,” so “how do you assure passengers, given the problems this yr with the FAA?”

“We need to improve the gadget to make it world classification,” Kirby acknowledged. “However the air traffic controllers are one of the best on this planet. Unbelievable experts. And so they maintain the skies protected. What happens when they are short staffed or there’s a know-how problem, they slow the airspace down. They put extra miles between airplanes. That provides them the power to manage and deal with it. It leads to purchaser influences, lengthen or cancel flights. However it keeps the gadget secure and that’s absolutely what they will have to do.”

O’Keefe pressed him additional on passenger issues. “There are nonetheless folks available in the market who are in fact just afraid to fly, particularly given the incident right here in Washington, the aircraft that flipped over on a runway up in Toronto, the entire close to misses or the clipped wings. What do you say to that one who thinks, ‘k, you say issues are protected, however I see these other considerations occurring, why will have to I get on an aircraft?’”

“I be mindful where they are coming from,” spoke back Kirby. “I learn the same headlines they do. However it is the most secure industry by far in the world. It’s the most secure approach to commute by some distance. The USA is the chief in security of everybody world wide. I do know that. I am in it and I comprehend it. I be mindful how people feel and empathize with that. I do know that it’s safe because I spent my profession, I know all of the people in aviation, whether they work at united airways, other airlines, the FAA. Safety is primary. It’s in the core DNA of everybody.”

Watch the video above by means of CBS News.

The submit CBS Anchor Ed O’Keefe Asks United CEO Point-Blank: ‘Is It Safe to Be Flying In and Out of Newark?’ first seemed on Mediaite.