Check out the video I was sent by a retired United Airlines 747 Captain. It shows what can happen when a bird flies into a jet engine. This particular engine was, fortunately, on the ground at a testing facility.

HOW MUCH DO UNITED PILOTS HATE THEIR CEO?

As I've noted before, United Airlines

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[UAUA  Loading...      ()   ] CEO Glenn Tilton has the lowest approval rating in aviation on the employer-rating website Glassdoor.com.

No other airline has a website created by pilots dedicated to removing the CEO.

It's called GlennTilton.com, which is not written by Tilton. Instead, its headline screams "Glenn Tilton Must Go...United Pilots Ask Your Help in Removing an Incapable Leader." Among the many subjects on the website is an update on the "Petition to restore meal service."   Hear! Hear!

But United pilots are now unhappy about a new partnership between the airline's parent, UAL, and Aer Lingus. The two will expand a current partnership with new flights between Madrid and Washington, DC, starting next year. Who will be flying the planes? Not United pilots, who describe the new deal as "outsourcing".

Here's part of a letter sent out last week from United Captain Steve Wallach, who represents the pilots at the Air Line Pilots Association:

• "The day after reporting one of its worst quarterly financial results in history and after furloughing an additional 254 pilots (bringing the total to 606 pilots), United Airlines announced today that it has entered into what it calls an 'innovative' partnership with Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus has advised the Irish press that this joint venture will operate an Aer Lingus aircraft with neither United nor Aer Lingus employees..." (Note: emphasis is mine)

I have not seen any Irish news reports suggesting the pilots flying under the United banner will not be from Aer Lingus (they definitely will not be United pilots), and I've put in a call to Wallach's reps for more information on where he got that information. But is United and its CEO making a smart business move here? Or is now the wrong time to outsource flying to someone less expensive and potentially less experienced? Do you really want to announce this only a couple weeks after 58-year-old veteran captain Chesley Sullenberger of US Airways

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[LCC  Loading...      ()   ] managed to flawlessly land a jetliner on water? Believe me, it's doubtful you'll be getting any Sullenberger's flying planes in this new joint venture. Pilots like him are just too expensive.

I asked a current United 747 captain what he thought about the Aer Lingus situation, and here's his tongue-and-cheek take: "Of course now is the time to outsource the old experienced pilots--they can command more on the open market as the company sheds assets, bolstering their cash positions." Ah, if only there was a free agent market for pilots, instead of the current model which forces pilots to start at the bottom of the pay/seniority scale whenever they join an airline, no matter how much experience they have.

That's why pilots never switch jobs if they don't have to. No one wants to leave after ten years to go to another airline...and start at the bottom again.

• Breaking News: "Rod Tidwell" Will Be In Tampa

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