An American Airlines pilot has been spotted boasting a ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ luggage tag hanging off his bag as he waited in uniform to board a flight from St Lucia to Miami on Saturday.
The tag also said ‘#FJB’ which is shorthand for ‘Fuck Joe Biden’. The ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ chant was adopted by some Republicans last October as a means to criticize President Joe Biden.
The phrase quickly took on a new life to protest the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates and protestors, including some American Airlines pilots, have attended pickets outside the carrier’s headquarters in Texas shouting the slogan to protest AA’s vaccine mandate.
Dana Finley Morrison, a Sorority & Fraternity Professional from Colombia, noticed the luggage tag while waiting to board the flight and posted a photo to her Twitter account. Morrison has since been forced to restrict access to her Tweets after receiving a barrage of abuse.
“hey @AmericanAir – y’all cool with your pilots displaying this kind of cowardly rhetoric on their crew luggage when they’re in uniform, about to fly a plane,” Morrison wrote in the now hidden Tweet.
“We are not the only passengers who noticed and were disgusted,” the Tweet continued.
An American Airlines rep responded to Morrison promising to investigate the incident. “We hold our team members to the highest standards and expectations,” the airline told her in response to her complaint.
The history of the ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ chant can be traced back to an October 2, 2021, NASCAR race when an NBC reporter was interviewing 28-year-old racer Brandon Brown. The crowd behind Brandon were chanting something that the reporter at first thought was “Let’s go Brandon” in support of the racer.
In fact, it soon became clear that the crowd were chanting: “F**k Joe Biden”.
Later the same month, a Southwest Airlines pilot reportedly signed off an onboard passenger announcement on a flight between Houston and Albuquerque with the phrase.
Southwest said it was investigating the incident after facing a backlash on social media from some customers who demanded the pilot be sacked for using the politically charged and highly emotive phrase.
American Airlines pilots are barred from displaying non-approved accessories while in uniform, although the airline does allow pilots to wear up to three approved insignia on their jacket lapel.
In October 2020, the Dallas Fort Worth-based airline courted controversy when it created an official ‘Black Lives Matter’ pin. The Stand for Change badge is just one of many officially approved pins created by Employee Business Resource Groups. Along with the American flag pin, there is also a military veterans pin, a Pride badge and one for Christian workers.
The deadline for AA’s vaccine mandate passed last Tuesday with the airline saying that 97% of U.S.-based employees had either provided proof of vaccination or applied for an exemption.
Although the vast majority of workers have now complied with the mandate, the Allied Pilots Association reassured pilots that “management continues to reiterate that it does not intend to terminate any pilot for noncompliance with the vaccination requirement.”
A few comments. First, the Let’s Go Brandon slogan isn’t just about vaccinating. Beyond that, AA went down this road a few years ago regarding stickers on company property. So I’m going to assume that they will give this guy grief. If his bag is property of AA then they may require him to remove it. I doubt the pilots union will allow AA to do very much on this issue and beyond that, there is a major shortage of pilots so they are on thin ice along those lines.
BLM is a political organization so the BLM is like AA creating a DNC or SPA pin. Besides ALL that I’d rather fly with this pilot no matter what his personal support includes (Pro-Trump, Anti Biden, or whatever) than some internet troll and is SO upset over some else. Her comments are ridiculous like she is just out to Dox this guy and ruin his life and career over her political support or opinion. It’s kind of symptomatic of many people today. They have created an echo chamber bubble around them using biased media sources, social media feeds, and “friends” on social media. No doubt the “feelings” of her echo group are emotionally upset over Donald Trump and Covid and Nascar and, and, and. So this triggered her at the airport and she reached out on social media because she expected 100% of her group to cheer her for being so Woke or whatever. Either that or she was looking for a reaction which is even how a blog post like this one works to gain views and comments like my own. Funny thing is that she may actually mirror AA management on this issue, maybe. You know, pick on some pilot that they still want to fly the plane just to elevate their own beliefs. I doubt she went up the gate agent after this photo and refused to fly with “that pilot”.
The pilots should de fired. Why is that so hard to understand? They can take a charter flight home.
As an American Airlines pilot I say it was definitely wrong. Very unprofessional.
Sure, why not? AA had attendants wear pins that support BLM.