Southwest Pilot Apologizes for Crude Gay, Sexist Remarks

The Southwest Airlines Co. pilot didn't mean to insult gays and older workers.

It was just the jet-lag talking.

Veteran pilot James Taylor of Argyle, Texas, with Southwest Airlines for 12 years, said in an email this week distributed to employees that his comments were truly insensitive of me and I would like all of you to know that from now on, I will show nothing but the utmost respect during my interactions with all employees, according to the Associated Press.

Taylor had used slurs and profanity from the cockpit of a Southwest plane, complaining that flight attendants with the airline were mostly gay or too old and too heavy for him to date. Taylor also singled out flight attendants from Southwest's Houston branch in his comments for being generally ugly, except for maybe a handful of cute chicks.

The cockpit microphone connecting the plane to air traffic control was open, and his comments from the cockpit were heard and reported.

In response, the Southwest flight attendants' union had planned to file a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about Taylor's open-mic, insulting remarks. But after he apologized through company-wide email this week, plans by the union to file the complaint were dropped.

The AP reported the pilot has not been identified by Southwest, but the company did acknowledge that the email was legitimate. The company also said the pilot was suspended for the insulting remarks and ordered to take diversity training classes. The incident occurred in March. Taylor has been reinstated by Southwest, but for health reasons he has not been back to work after his comments became public last week.

Taylor had previously apologized to air-traffic controllers and to some Southwest employees in Houston but he had not made a company-wide apology until this week, after the news of his crude comments became public.