Neff is a bit of an enigma, a sole-owner micromanager who has maintained his fingers in everything, who creatively embezzled his own operation with the stock options scheme, and has been a standard bearer for old, tired, failed models (ala great game of business). My sense of him is that it isn't altruistic, but it isn't all avarice, either. I believe he did hope to make it an employee owned company in which the employees spearheaded the drive for efficiency; i think he actually believed some of it, though not such an adherent that he practiced what he preached.

His practice of kicking the can down the road, doing the bare minimum on maintenance, foisting 70 hour workweeks without overtime on mechanics, and all the other crap that he's puled, from falsification of maintenance records to a long-standing practice of CND (could not duplicate) signoffs for even serious items, to threats to personnel of firing for failure to sign off as airworthy red-tag or green-tag parts (engine making copious amounts of metal, for example) were typical, dangerous behavior that he justified as squeezing just one more leg, just one more flight...until a crew change when he'd pull it again. And again. And again. And again.

WGA has a strong core of very experienced pilots who have followed the airframes from company to company, and nobody has been able to run them all that long before collapsing. Neff's implosion isn't particularly unique: he's simply added his name to the list of the same airframes that have been throiugh one company after another. The pilots, however, many of them, are rock-solid individuals; I know many of them. I'd fly with them in a heartbeat and the acid test: I'd trust my family to them any day, in the most trying of circumstances, with full confidence; these are the people truly affected here (along with mechanics, office staff, etc). There are personnel at WGA who trained in the first MD11 simulator when it was in Long Beach, and flew the first airframes, when they still had the new-airplane smell, and who trained under and received instruction from the people who designed the aircraft. WGA also has a small eclectic element of those who will never upgrade, who couldn't fly their way out of a wet paper bag, turning the airplane into a single-pilot cockpit at times. Not many, but there are a few, and the maintenance department has a sizeable share of such...who shouldn't change the oil on a car, let alone work on the MD11.

That WGA hasn't had a spectacular wreck is a testament to the crews, who manage to operate professionally, including refusals, in spite of Neff's operation.

I know that there are operations presently which will snap up WGA pilots if and when they elect to move on, as many have already done. For those who choose not, for whatever reason, It is my sincere hope that Neff can un-**** the mess he has made, let good people do their job with the support they deserve, and that WGA will weather it's Chapter 11 and come back stronger.

Many moons ago, Connie Kalitta sold off his operation, which imploded and failed, and he bought it back for the price of ash, and built it into a very successful money maker once again. I point to that in light of Neff's purchasing his own debt. For the interim, he's secured a small injection of funds. Given his 900% profit increase during the pandemic, his soaking up of sixty five million in covid relief funds, and his stealing four hundred million and leaving it to the employees as vapor, the recent infusion of 77 million is more likely to simply become his graft or theft again, but I sincerely hope not. I hope the company thrives and comes through. I hope that everyone who is there, lands on their feet, either in their WGA uniform, or at somewhere that recognizes their value. I've no sympathy for Neff at this stage; it's up to. him to turn around and stop his practices, but at his age, and with his history, I very much doubt he will. I doubt he can. If he'd managed the profits as he made them and built the company, he wouldn't be where he is, despite the downturn in freight from the artificial pandemic high. WGA is more than capable of sustaining and being productive. It doesn't have to be this way. This is 100% the result of a sole ownership and the blame can't be shared, given the degree of micromanagement. Lay it where it's due, at Neff's feet. It truly saddens me to see.

Neff took pristine aircraft that were immaculate when received from Lufthansa, and turned them into rat traps with poor maintenance, shuffling of parts, failure to fix, eye-poppingly large lists of deferrals and MEL and CDL items. Lufthansa managed to maintain those airplanes like new, and it took almost no time for Neff's practices to trash them. Again, this never had to be: it was the product of decisions. Those decisions can be changed, as can the way debt it paid, maintenance is done, freight is garnered, business relationships forged and maintained. What is now, can be fixed and does not need to be; WGA can be a good company; it's got good people, it's got capable aircraft if they're maintained. This is all Neff. I feel for the crews and personnel who have given service above and beyond and who have continued to do their part, only to be smacked in the face by Neff's practices. Neff isn't the tragedy; how all this affects the loadmasters and pilots, mechanics, instructors, office personnel, and others, is the tragedy. I wish them the best.