(John Ransom, Headline USA) US commercial airline pilots are suing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in federal court over the mask mandate on airplanes, saying the mandate needlessly endangers safety aboard aircraft, according to the Epoch Times.
The lawsuit, which represents pilots from six different states, coincided with a Senate repeal 57 to 40 of the mask mandate, which still needs to be voted on in the House and signed by Joe Biden to take effect.
“Masking has been very difficult for us. It’s been difficult for the public,” Janviere Carlin, a pilot for JetBlue Airways, who is a plaintiff in the case, told The Epoch Times.
“This last time [the mandate was extended] we finally decided it was time to make our issues known because the entire mandate was put upon us without going through the proper legislative processes, so we never had the opportunity to make our comments known.”
Webmd.com said the lawsuit by the pilots contends that there is no scientific evidence to support the idea that wearing masks inside airplanes helps mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
The pilots also contend that the mask mandates have created “chaos in the skies” said WebMd, putting extra pressure on airline staff to act as federal law enforcement officials, and on passengers, who already find flying 30,000 feet above the earth in a cramped aluminum tube to be stressful without the mask mandate.
Over 71% of unruly passenger reports are due to the mask mandate, said data shared by Fox News.
Fox News reports that so far this year the FAA has recorded “889 reports of unruly passengers, with 587 of those cases mask-related incidents. In 2021, 5,981 unruly passenger cases were reported to the FAA with 4,290 being mask-related.”
Pilot Carlin said that masking provides a lot more risk for operating an airplane than the public is aware, and claims that it puts routine safety procedures on hold over 10 cent paper masks.
“We can’t hear air traffic control clearly,” Carlin told the Epoch Times. “We can always tell when they’re wearing masks because it’s difficult to understand them. We can’t smell alcohol on passengers or crew, so we can’t make safety judgments on fitness to fly.
“We can’t smell smoke or electrical in the cockpit, where a few seconds will make a big difference in outcome, Carlin said. “All of the safety things that are drilled into our heads for years are suddenly taking a backseat to wearing a mask.”
