A former Delta pilot tells America’s Number 1 Newstainment Source, GWU! that he warned Delta Airlines that their DEI initiatives would crash and burn. And that’s exactly what many industry experts are saying only a few days after the near-deadly crash-landing at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.
“I’d spotted this on the radar years ago,” says Captain Rudolph “Dutch” Madrid over Microsoft Teams in an exclusive to GWU! “The memos, the meetings, the new female and BIPOC hires straight out of accelerated programs with half the flight time I had before I even touched a regional jet!” the former Delta flyboy vents.
Hitting the injection seat
Madrid was let go from Delta in 2022, ostensibly for refusing to comply with the airline’s insane COVID-19 vaccine mandate. But he believes his firing was just an excuse for the airline to make way for more diversity. “Dutch” reiterates the culture change at the airline was created with the malicious intent to throw older pilots like him out the window with the effect of a total disregard for safety standards.
The 59-year-old Minnesota veteran, and Vikings fan, goes on to say that while he’s okay with companies who want to offer inclusivity programs to employees, he firmly believes that this “nonsense” must stop when it comes to risking people’s lives.
Madrid adds: “The sky doesn’t care about your intentions. It doesn’t care about your quotas. It only cares about skill, experience, and respect for the laws of physics.”
Although Delta has refused to release the names of the pilot and staff in charge of the ill-fated flight, speculation has swirled that it was an all-female/diverse crew who were responsible for the disastrous landing.
Flying the female skies
More recently, a flight landing in Washington was involved in a mid-air collision, killing all onboard. At the time, newly elected President Trump spoke passionately about how DEI programs are putting American lives at risk, but critics aren’t sure that he’s doing enough to stop the insanity.
“Only a few weeks ago, Delta put out a promotional video demonstrating their commitment to DEI,” adds Madrid, who has flown everything from a Cessna to a F-117 Nighthawk during Operation Desert Storm.
Critics had warned that the Delta program prioritized diversity over experience, potentially compromising safety. But Delta dismissed these concerns, insisting that all pilots met rigorous high standards. On that snowy Monday, however, the critics’ fears seemed to have snowballed into a major tragedy.
The Bombardier CRJ-900, an older but reliable workhorse of the skies, and one that Captain Madrid had flown “thousands of times” was en route from Minneapolis to Toronto. The descent was routine, the passengers calm, and the crew confident. But as the wheels touched the snow-covered tarmac, something went horribly wrong. The plane bounced, tilted, and then, in a heart-stopping moment, flipped upside down. The right wing sheared off, the tail fin crumpled, and the aircraft skidded on its side, spewing black smoke and fuel across the runway.
“Landing errors can and do happen, but let’s be serious. This was an amateur landing during a mild snowstorm.”
Falling Flight Standards
Captain Madrid confides to GWU! his personal speculation on some of the lesser-known corners Delta may have cut to fast-track diversity hires to the cockpit, like the two who crashed down in Toronto.
1. Basic Eligibility Requirements: Delta, like other airlines, requires a person to be 18 years old to obtain a Commercial Pilot License and 23 years old for an Airline Transport Pilot License, but Madrid says most of the new hires look like they haven’t even finished high school and certainly wouldn’t be old enough to join him and the other flyboys for an after-work whiskey.
2. Medical Certification: Pilots must pass a medical exam conducted by an FAA-designated Aviation Medical Examiner or equivalent authority. Our POed pilot says that you’ve got people flying planes who go by “They.” “How in the hell can you pass a Mental Health test thinking like that?” he asks.
3. Training and Education: Pilots must complete flight training at an FAA-approved flight school or equivalent, but Madrid says that when he’s asked new Delta pilots where they went to school they either don’t answer or he’s never heard of the fly-by night school. “Honestly, I think one lady went to flight school on TikTok.”
4. Flight Experience: To qualify for an Airline Transport Pilot License, which is required to captain commercial flights, pilots must have 1,500 total flight hours (in the U.S., per FAA regulations). But Madrid says these days some of the hours are questionable at best. “Sitting in the airport lounge waiting for a thunderstorm to pass doesn’t count as hours in the sky.”
The Plane Truth on DEI
Despite Delta not releasing the identity of the pilots, Captain Madrid said he’s seen millions of landings and after viewing video of the Toronto incident obtained by GWU! he confirms that these people didn’t have a clue what they were doing.
And while Capitan Madrid is happy to have helped vote Trump into office last November, the unemployed maverick is hoping Trump and Elon Musk will work to jettison these dangerous DEI programs to Mars.
