Delta Air Lines has closed their Aircrew Training Center (DATC) in Atlanta which is used for pilot training, as a result of COVID-19. It’s being reported that some 32 Delta pilots have tested positive for COVID-19. Additionally, many others are experiencing symptoms but haven’t been tested yet, so the actual number could be significantly higher.
Additionally those are diagnosed with COVID-19 are being advised not to tell others at Delta including flight attendants that they have been infected, which has directed from the Chief Pilot’s office.
Per the Huff Post,
A Delta Air Lines executive directed pilots who test positive for the coronavirus withhold the diagnosis from flight attendants and other colleagues, according to video of an internal discussion among leaders of the pilots’ union.Â
In the video, it’s mentioned that 32 Delta Air Lines pilots have tested positive for COVID-19, with many others declining tests, which means the actual numbers could be quite significantly higher.
In the nine-minute video, which appears to have been recorded in secret and posted Thursday to YouTube, a union representative tells the other leaders that one of Delta’s chief pilots, who are also high-ranking regional managers at the company, told air captains “it’s not your job to go telling people that you were infected.†Workers HuffPost spoke to interpreted it as an attempt to restrict who found out.Â
“That’s one reason why the company was telling people, ‘Hey, don’t tell the flight attendants you were sick,’ or anything of that nature,†said the representative, who appears to be Brandon Conwill, a committee chairman at Delta’s chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association, or ALPA.
Here’s a look a the leaked video from Delta’s chapter of the Air Line Pilots Association:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=41&v=DRg08Ug_gQk&feature=emb_logo
Most of a US choir aquired covid-19 in spite of scrupulously following hand hygiene, not shaking hands and following the spacing rules.
It could be that talking or sinigng make you more vulnerable becuase then you breathe in and out viad the mouth. Normally breathing is via the nose. Breathing via the mouth could deliver the particles with the virus directly into the lungs and aerosols with the virus directly out of the lungs aiding spread of the virus.
This should be considered criminal. To puposely withold possibly life critical information from the crew is at least a sin, and should be considered “criminal intent” to do bodily harm to others. Just because Delta F/As are non-union does not give the company or the pilots the unobstructed idea to withhold the information. This event should really fuel the F/As unionization efforts.