Wrong San Jose.... It was at SJC.

The story I heard goes as follows and supposedly all was captured on CC camera. The FO was enjoying his beer in peace. Some male FA was harranguing him over the mask. The FO was ignoring the FA. The FA left. Came back 20 minutes later and got really close to the FO... when the FO turned around, the FA was literally in his face with provoking and threatening body language, so he did what any normal person who was startled by how close someone was in his face would do which was push away the flight attendant who apparently clumsily fell. Well, that was the "assault on the flight attendant."

The police was called and they refused to press charges because it was obvious that the FO was minding his own business and did not provoke any of this. But that didn't stop the company from firing the FO and the former pilot who now works at SWA Legal apparently called it "clean kill."

SWAPA tried to get the FO's job back. Bob Waltz promised SWAPA the FO will be back. SWA Legal headed by the former pilot said no. Bob turned and told SWAPA that the FO wasn't coming back despite SWA Legal having seen the video exonerating the FO. Bob cowardly accepted that. SWAPA didn't.

Had Bob gone to the SWA Legal and said "This is my department. This FO is getting his job back, or you can look for another VP of Flight Ops", had he gotten fired from VP of Flight Ops, he would have received a hero's welcome back to the line and would have never paid for another drink. Instead, he sold out, and then ultimately got axed anyway and came back to the line. The FO eventually came back on the line and Bob had to live with not standing up for one of his own.

He applied to be a check airman, didn't get it. Essentially, he was gonna ride out the rest of his career as a line pilot, and that's just not enough for Bob.

To me, Bob is an example of what not to do if you're a leader.