My side of the story (Falcon F/O)
 

I was called in last minute, and was told to hurry. The pilot that was supposed to fly could not find his company I.D. They said that in order to speed things up I should come in the clothes I had on and change into my uniform in the cockpit. I did not do this and quickly changed into my uniform at home. In retrospect it starts to make sense to me now why they wanted me to walk in civilian clothes through the terminal...

Much later that day I found out that I was pilot #4, pilot #2&#3 had called in sick. Had I known that, I probably would have made a couple of phone calls to fellow pilots to find out what was going on, and would have called in sick too.

Anyway, I was told to go to the parking lot on the north side of the field, via the perimeter road and park there (BAX International parking lot). I entered the airport perimeter road from the west side of the airport. At the parking lot I was picked up and dropped off via the perimeter road (eastbound) at terminal 3. I guess that's why I didn't see a picket line (as some detractors claim I should have) since I didn't enter the airport (terminal side) through the regular entrance road.

I rushed through the terminal and the security screening to the gate. When I entered the jet bridge, there were a couple of pilots taking a picture of me which struck me as odd. While rushing past them I even asked bewildered: "You are making a picture of me?" They kind of smiled and said "yes".

The pax already had boarded before and the captain had already picked up the clearance and loaded the FMS. I did the W&B, and asked him what our call-sign was. He said it was "NKS2098". After push back I used only "NKS2098". I had no idea that NKS was Spirit.

A person that messaged me on facebook claimed that I knew that it was a Spirit flight because he heard it on an ATC recording. He pointed out where to find the recording. I have listened to the online recording and you can hear (on the outbound flight) that ATC (ground) used "Spirit" only once in response to a transmission of the captain. And that call, as you can hear, was answered by the captain. I had not heard it, and it must have completely passed me by while I was focusing on other tasks. Furthermore, the captain used only “NKS2098” too on the way outbound. Had ATC used “Spirit” consistently and repeatedly, than I agree that I should have known. You can hear that with every transmission that I made while outbound I used call-sign "NKS2098", and so did ATC.

Arriving at the take-off end of rwy 9L I noticed a person at the fence with a camera that had a large tele lens. I thought he was an aircraft spotter making pictures of the plane (call me stupid). The captain then said that he was a Spirit Air striker. At that point I started to get the feeling that something was wrong.

Not until switching to center after departure did I start to figure out that NKS was a Spirit call-sign since using it on center frequency sparked comments from other airplanes like: "I thought that Spirit was on strike". That's when it became clear to me that the cat had been out of the bag all along. I kept using "NKS2098" until halfway to MYSM when center said that NKS was "Spirit Wings". On the way back I flew the last leg and the captain did the radio. After exiting the runway when I took over communications ATC used "Spirit 2098". And since tower/ground used it, I responded with it.

After coming back I called a fellow pilot, and he told me what was going on. He told me that most pilots had called in sick. Had I known this I would have called in sick too. I had been sick with a knee injury the 2 weeks before, and had just reported back fit for work. It would have appeared credible to management to claim was that my knee injury was acting up again. Anyway, had I reported back fit for work on Monday (6/14/10) as I had planned the week before I would not have been in this world of hurt. I heard on Sunday (6/13/10) that fellow pilots had intended to warn me that day because they believed that I was coming back on Monday. Too late…, I had started feeling better by the end of the week and had called in fit for work on Friday (6/11/10). If I had known that most pilots had called in sick, I would not have called in fit for work for on that day. Anyway, that evening (Saturday 6/12/10) I also called Falcon Air crew scheduling that I was not available for work anymore.

When I got home I immediately called a KFLL ALPA strike coordinator. I identified myself and told him that I had been pushed into this mess by my company, that it was an unintentional mistake, and that I was not going to fly anymore (I thought this was the right thing to do, however some on this forum seem to think differently). The Spirit pilots got what they wanted: no more flights by Falcon Air. I offered to join the picket line the next day to show support for the Spirit Air pilots. This offer appeared to be appreciated. The next morning, just before I was about to walk out the door in uniform to join the picket line in KFLL, the strike coordinator called me. He informed me that there were a couple of people that he could not control, and that I better not show up to avoid any nasty confrontations. I decided to follow his advice.

There are people saying that I benefited from operating the flight. Nothing is farther from the truth. I will not even break guarantee by a long shot this month. There was no quid pro quo!

There are also people that say that I have been long enough in the industry, and that I should have known what the implications were. I have been a pilot for 19 years. In these 19 years I acquired less than 3500 hrs. I started flying the line under FAR 121 with Falcon Air (non union) only in January of this year (I thought I finally was getting lucky for once…). My background is under FAR 135 (with about a 1000 hours of flying charters in cabin class/light recip twins), and most of my experience under is under FAR 91 (over 60%). I have flown a total less than 3500 hrs over the last 19 years (since I started flying). I do not have any experience with unions. It is all new to me. It might be clear to you that I do not have that much consistent aviation job experience either, let alone airline experience.

I read that people say that I flew with Carnival in 1995. This is absolutely not true. I had about 500 or 600 hours at the time, I don’t think they would have hired me. I did do F/O training at the Carnival facility on the B737-200 (simulator). I ended up there because I was offered a job by a person if I agreed to pay $7000 for the training; supposedly it was a contract job in Thailand. I finished the training, but the job never materialized.

I have also read that I associate myself with a scab since I have put a reference on my resume of. That resume is at least 10 years old, and I have no idea how it ended up on the internet, but it has been out there for a long time. Anyway, I did not know about his background. I hardly even knew the guy. He just told me that I could use him as a reference. I think he moved to Texas about 10 years ago.

Others claim that I should have seen striking people in the terminal. Believe me, I didn’t see any pilots until I got to the gate. There were I think 3 of them and I did see any strike signs. They just took my picture which befuddled me. I didn’t understand what their purpose was.

For people who say that I should have read about it on forums, I hardly ever go there. I didn’t even have an account. (I am new on this forum here, I just signed up).

After posting my story on the forum I read that I should have walked of the plane in MYSM. I didn't know what the right thing to do was. With the myopic understanding I had of unions, I thought by going back and calling Falcon scheduling that I was not available for flights anymore, and by joining the picket line I would show my intent. My thinking was: to have walked of the plane in MYSM I would have screwed myself royally. I am pretty sure that I would have been fired had I done that. I thought that there would be some kind of understanding for that by the pilot community since I was going to stop flying after return. Obviously I didn’t get it...

I am aware that there will be plenty of people that will not believe me. Just ask yourselves, what did I have to gain from doing this flight? Absolutely nothing! On the contrary, I have been barraged with hate-mail and have received anonymous hate-phone calls. I have lost a hell of a lot more than many of you might realize (including sleep, peace of mind and reputation). The accessibility to information on the internet has allowed it to spread like wildfire. I have been on my computer for long hours, trying to explain what happened to whoever sends me a message to my facebook account. I hope that by posting my side of the story on forums you will understand that I did not get myself involved motivated by malice but by sheer ignorance.

My offer to walk the picket line in support of the KFLL Spirit pilots stands of course!! I will not go there and volunteer to get beaten up however.

Respectfully,

Onno Bulk

If your SA is that low, maybe you should consider a new career (not that you'll have much of a choice now).

Why did you operate the return flight?

I'm getting some popcorn, brb

Must suck to be a scab.

ill bring the six pack...better make it a case this is going to be fun....

At that time the cat was already out of the bag. Besides, if I had refused to fly back my and factually would have let the plane be stranded there, my company would have most likely have fired me. Who was going to pay my bills then?

The only way I could have prevented being involved in this was by not flying at all. As I said in my posting, had fellow pilots of Falcon Air reached me in time I would have called in sick. As you can read in my posting I my knee injury would have supplied me with a plausible excuse even.

Liar.

A scab is a scab.

As others have said, if your SA is that poor, you need to be looking at another job.


Let's give you the benefit of doubt and say yes you didn't realize you were flying a NKS flight until almost to your destination, why did you fly the return leg? Why not call out sick? Do SOMETHING other then continue to SCAB and fly struck work?

There it is ladies and gentlemen. The scab mentality.

You could have redeemed yourself by stranding that aircraft, but you had a choice. Your bills or Spirit pilots. You chose yourself and now you get what you deserve.