‘They’re dumb’: Nathan Fielder fires back at FAA over HBO show criticism
Is poor communication between pilots in the cockpit, a contributing factor in plane crashes. Well, that is what the latest season of the popular HBO show The Rehearsal set out to investigate using a replica of an airport terminal, giant puppets and even cloned dogs. I’ve been studying commercial aviation disasters as a hobby, and I started to notice a disturbing pattern in the causes of these crashes. 15 years ago, you recommended role playing exercises. The FAA said no. For whatever reason, they’re just not going in in order to make change. It’s going to take something different. Mr. fielder, where does your sense of altruism come from? Where all of a sudden you want to save lives? You’re known for profit. Wait. This is not sincere. We should note that CNN and HBO are both owned by the same parent company, Warner Brothers Discovery. Here with us now. Comedian 737, pilot and host of The Rehearsal Nathan Fielder and aviation safety expert and former National Transportation Safety Board member John Gilliam. He served under president Bill Clinton and George W Bush. Thanks to both of you for joining us. For those of our viewers who have seen the show. In this interview, I’m going to be the First Officer Blunt, and I’m going to be captain. All ears, you understand? Will be you. Yes. I mean, that’s what we talk about communication in the show. So we’re playing roles right now? Yeah, we are role playing. Well, I’m guessing you have to do this. Okay. Well, I think that’s good. You know, I also think we’ll that, like the issue that we talked about in the show is, is people not wanting to share their feelings with each other copilots because one might be of higher, more experienced than the other. So they might know the thing that will save a plane from crashing, but they might not want to communicate it. Nathan. So I assume between you two, we like each other and we talked to each other, but there’s things you probably don’t share too, so that’s a good way of the audience understanding the dynamic. Probably. Right. Really? He should be the captain, is what you’re saying. That’s really what it’s talking. Do you watch the show? Of course. Everybody you knew this is over. Everybody’s watching. This is very common. So guys are doing great. You know. You know, for you. No, no, for comedy. As we all know. Nathan. Yeah. What made you decide to investigate a very serious matter like this? Well, the show is still comedy, but also, this is a serious thing. But I’ve been just interested in commercial airline crashes. Just for a while. Just as like a hobby. I sort of just read about them. You fly a lot like as a passenger. Yeah. Yeah, well, I fly normal, like planes, like everyone. So you’re concerned about airline safety? Well, I don’t want to die. Yeah, yeah, but we don’t. I mean, I’m concerned the same as everyone, but I just. Yeah, I started to notice and. Yeah, there’s a TV show in Canada about crashes too, that I watch. But I started to notice that they can always solve the technical stuff when a crash happens. You know, they work really hard to make sure that type of accident doesn’t happen again. But for the human factor in communication, the thing keeps happening where there’s miscommunication between pilots. and I, I talked to John about this and yeah, John, obviously, you know, you just in the Navy just got inducted to the Aviation Hall of Fame, by the way. Congratulations. It’s a big thing. And we’re really excited about that. So in aviation, we’ve long known that communications has been an issue. And we’ve we have dealt with it, effectively through crew resource management. But what what, Nathan has uncovered was a little sliver that has fallen through the cracks. And with this communications disconnect between pilots, and when he first came to me and mentioned that to me, it immediately caught fire with me because I’ve seen it. I’ve flown in many, many, many cockpits. I’ve seen that the scenario that he presented over and over again, and in fact, I want to take his scenario. I teach school and college in New York City, an aviation school. I plan on taking that show to my students because they’re up and coming aviation people to show them and and use it as an example of what they should not do and that they need to speak up so clearly. There’s concern. You lay it out in the show. we reached out to the FAA to see what it had to say about all of this, and it told us that it mandates all airline pilots and crew members to complete interpersonal communication training. And it says it isn’t seeing the data that supports the show central claim that Pilot Communications is to blame for airline disaster. So I want to get you to respond to that. Obviously that’s dumb. They’re dumb and they’re, you know, they here’s the issue is that they do like, I trained to be a pilot and I’m a 737 pilot. I went through the training. The training is someone shows you a PowerPoint slide saying if, if, if you are a copilot in the captain does something wrong, you need to speak up about it. That’s all. That’s the training. And they talk about some crashes that happened, but they don’t. They don’t do anything that makes it stick emotionally and makes you like so pilots think they’ll act a certain way in an accident. But like the crash that just happened here, it seemed like they saw that was sort of the issue. Right? A lot of disconnects between multiple parties. And so you’ve seen evidence that a lack of communication, if you will, between a pilot, the copilot in the cockpit has caused a crash and not a contributed that’s contributed to contribute to a crash in that, do I agree. Yeah. Well yeah, that was my whole thing. That’s the whole show. But I mean it’s like a human thing, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, there’s definitely stuff I’m sure you guys like you brought up the analogy, but like, I’m sure Pamela, you don’t say some things to Wolfer because you’re between you two, who would be like the boss or the more like you’re you’re Wolf Blitzer, right? So you’re like, your name is first on that thing. So I’m sure Pamela’s at times you you might not want to say, you know, oh, Wolf wants to do something. You don’t think it’s a good idea? You might not want to express that. Always. Sure said. We actually have a pretty. I understand your. But you have to say that now. No, I know you don’t want to say to Wolf. You can, you know, as a journalist, you going to say, oh, I don’t want to. She says that she says it. Yeah. So maybe you’re afraid to say the great thing about Wolf. I’m very happy with him, too. Okay? He he has no ego. But but I take your point that, like, I mean, Wolf’s in movies and stuff. He’s a big deal there. There is no there is no question. So that’s intimidating. That can be intimidating. That can be intimidating. That’s sort of the thing where we’re trying to explore a little bit. What’s been the reaction to to the show? I know what do you think I’m asking you? Oh, I don’t know. Ask me Astra. It’s exploded. My emails exploded, my messages exploded. My grandkids were all over me. I mean, it’s unbelievable the response. So I want to go to a little bit deeper into into the show to you, Nathan, to better understand pilots. You did what you called a personality transfer where you tried to live as Captain Chesley Solis Ellenberger, of course, that as a pilot of the miracle on the Hudson, and this was actually my favorite part of the season when you channeled baby Sully. Thank you. Right here. so why was that so important to rehearse? His entire life was in the miracle on the Hudson flight. Sully. Actually, he he he did. There was something I noticed in the transcript where he asked his first officer, like, hey, do you have any idea? So he sort of opened those lines of communication. And so I’m like, well, this pilot seems to be bucking the trend, I’ve noticed and is uniquely good. So I was trying to sort of understand, he said in his book that his entire life led him to what he did in that flight. So my thinking was, you know, these things, you know, we try things and not everything is going to work. And that’s the point. Like sometimes I think the FAA, which has revealed themselves to be very dumb today with that comment because to I think what we’re showcasing in the show is that there’s even though we might not have the exact solution, there’s stuff to look at here and there. You know why I say that? Because I think, you know, it’s a little dumb just to be like, you know, it’s that statement, right? What do you think? What is this an issue that the federal government should now investigate full time? It needs to start. CRM has been an effective tool in the cockpit. We need to look at it in the light of CRM and see if we need to put a module in there that deals with this training program for training. Do you think there should be role playing more role play in training? You said no question in the rehearsal that that you would actually propose that yes, when you were in and that that they rejected it. So you think there needs to be more? What do you make of the fact the FAA says, well, there isn’t data? I mean, obviously we know where Nathan comes down on this, but what do you think about the fact, as a former government official that there’s there’s not the data to back this up? I, a government official that has been frustrated with the with the FAA’s response to NTSB recommendations. Right. Like the ostrich syndrome is alive and well. Ostrich. Yeah. What’s your head in the sand? Oh. Oh. Okay. All right. Go the and defend. Deflect and deny. Is there Metra? So, so just to go back, we got to get. What do you do then? Trump’s got to do something or two. Hi. We got a you need to build the foundation. We need. We’re building the foundation. Building the foundation coming coming on this show. Obviously you’ve been appealing to Congress. Yes. And that’s that’s what you know, I was hoping to demonstrate with the miracle over the Mojave, which is the flight that I flew in the show to show communication between pilots. that people can see that two pilots trying their best to communicate. It’s still a struggle. And fortunately, in that flight, nothing else critical happened. So I think when the communication lines up with a real potential emergency, that’s when it could make all the difference. And so, you know, fortunately, I landed the plane safely and saved 150 lives, that day. And so I think the hope, the hope is that the FAA will look at this stuff and the miracle over the Mojave and be like, you think this has been going on over multiple administrations? This isn’t just the Trump administration. This you know, this is this. No, this is goes back. I mean, we we’ve been we started the show in under the the Biden administration. I mean, John John has worked for, you know, over 30 years ago. Yeah, I have a perfect example over 30 years ago, I was flying in the cockpit and the jump seat. I, the captain, was a good friend of mine. I haven’t seen him in months. We get it. I show up the airplane late, we’re ready to go. He starts chatting to me. We get up to the runway. He stops talking on the runway. We take off. But immediately after we try to figure, he starts chatting again and I let it go for a little bit. First officer never said anything. Finally I said to him, 10,000ft, let’s redo him at 10,000ft. Illegal to have chatter below 10,000ft. So. But he wanted to chat. I shut him up and we moved on. All right. So it’s there’s all sorts of interplay in cockpits that happen routinely that we need to focus on. And that 10,000ft rule for communications is one of the golden rules. You know, it’s interesting. I know you came here to Washington, Nathan, for the show where you met with Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen. he’s the ranking member on the House Aviation subcommittee. That meeting apparently didn’t appear to go very well. In a statement to CNN, the congressman said this, and I’m quoting him now. He says he’s disappointed with that meeting, saying his team was told you wanted to talk about autism and the difficulties people with the condition could have in an airplane crash. He also says most of the substantive parts of your interview never made it in the show. What are you hoping to get from that meeting? What were you hoping to get from that meeting? and have you spoken with other lawmakers here in Washington? Well, I actually think that I tried to, point out with similarities between, autism masking and what is happening with pilots in the cockpit. And he is on the aviation subcommittee, so and I think he’s he works in that area too. So I was I was trying to draw a connection and really bring up this important issue. And, you know, it’s disappointing that he’s sort of saying this now because, like, he still has an opportunity to tackle this issue. He’s the ranking member on the aviation subcommittee. And so I don’t understand why. I mean, honestly, to be honest, like he didn’t he didn’t seem to know a lot about like when I brought up CRM, which is this issue, he didn’t seem to really be like aware of it. And this specifics. So, look, I wasn’t going to bring that up because I but he seemed to like come at me a little here that, you know, so I feel like we brought him a good thing. And you know, I don’t know what the power is of these lawmakers because, you know, but he’s a minority. Only the the, the chairman of the committee can call witnesses, but he can talk to the guy, right? He knows the chairman, of course. And you’d be like, look, this guy, this this guy who’s a pilot, 737 pilot came to me with this very important issue. Maybe we should look at this a little more. And now that the show is out, he could show it to the the ranking member. so that that would that would be good. But it’s it’s, it’s I would say it’s disappointing that that he didn’t want to take this more seriously. We reached out to the congressman. He did reference the FAA training manual. What do you mean, this? You know, what was going on, how to prepare. Yeah. These kinds of situations, they have they talked to pilots about this, but they don’t train them. Like because you’re saying just like a PowerPoint, I can tell you, oh, how you got to speak your mind to Wolf. You know, you got to be careful. Don’t be afraid of him. I could tell you that. But are you going to do it right just because I say it, you need to reinforce reinforce it. And we showed, I think some there might not be the solution, but I think we showed some simple ways that this could be done cheaply and easily. That could help. and so so why not try it is what that’s what John and I are saying. Like just someone, someone’s got to, like, look into it, right? And actually only wants to I want to, you know, fund it so much because it’s like they want the entertainment value of it. So I’m going to jump in here as captain. All they’re saying. Okay. Sure. captain, all yours is the one that listens. Oh not they’re not. That’s one first Officer Black. Okay. Really quickly I all I’m all ears, though. we have this picture. I wanted to get this in before we go. We have a picture. Actually, not not just of the statement, but of when you took off in the 737. Yeah. You had been practicing in a simulator. This is the first time you were actually flying the real plane. Do we have this picture, guys? And there was a flock of birds right here. Oh, yeah. This is like a very still you’re still photographer captured this and this is a flock of birds and we we narrowly, I guess miss this. I didn’t realize when we were flying, but once we got on the ground and I saw the photo. And you can see it in the show, too. yeah. We narrowly missed the flock of birds. And if birds get in the engines, that could shut down the engine. No. What happened with Sully? Good thing you practice that and cause a real emergency. Well, exactly. But also, it shows why communication is important. Because if that did happen, like, you know, we landed the plane with the miracle on the Harvey safely and all that. But if the birds hit our engines and we actually had an emergency, communication could make the difference between getting down safely or not, right? Yeah. I mean, it makes it makes all the difference. All right. So thankfully, save a lot of lives and you’re you’re not only an actor and a comedian, you’re a pilot. I’m a pilot. You’re still pretty impressive working for a company. Flying. Flying the 730 sevens. Yes. Yeah, I do some fairy flights for like, a company. So we’re all, you know, transport empty planes around the world. Amazing. Well thank you. I do want to say thank you. And I want to say to, like, just this is just something that I think is important to say, because, you know, I think these days, like, a lot of people will go to, like, you know, alternative news sources or like comedy podcasters to get the word out about stuff, you know, like Joe Rogan or Theo Von. But for me, it’s still CNN all the way, you know, thank you for for us. Thank you so much. Hey, guys, keep up the good work. Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
Comedian Nathan Fielder and aviation safety expert John Goglia discuss their new HBO docu-comedy series ‘The Rehearsal,’ which explores whether miscommunication between pilots could be a hidden factor in plane crashes. #CNN #News
20 comments
Man, let the woman speak. Holy crap.
I feel like this is a bonus episode of "The Rehearsal".
Notice how he hasn’t said anything bad about Boeing. He knows Boeing unalive folks that speak against them.
That's what happens when you always expect everyone else to just figure it out.
The lack of training these days because of ignorant baby boomers expecting you to know everything about something off one sentence without understanding the significance of lived experiences and practice is the bane of every profession these days.
No one in that generation wants to take the time to ensure that people don't end up dead, inherently ignore those they hire as well expecting that they'll follow the rules, and by the time they go to hold anyone accountable, it's too late, all because of their ignorance of the truth to human behaviors and inherent human errors.
Hahaha, dumb starbucks 🤣
I love him so much
Watching this while eating poo flavored frozen yogurt.
Dramedy at its height
John is the key
Is this a joke?
Plane crashes were under control till the Trump admin fired several FAA employees and crippled the sector, now we’ve had multiple crashes and we’re out here pretending it’s an attitude problem?
This was a terrible interview and CNN has sunk to new lows. A puppet show?
God tier trolling..this is going to be hard to beat
Between this and the Tim Dillon interview, CNN is #1 on the charts for Funniest Interviews of the Year!
nathan took the time to train, become licensed, fly & land a 737 & is trying to shed light on training best practices and we love that everyone thinks he’s “just joking”
Oh cool. A new episode of Nathan’s show hosted on CNN
“I’m interested as a hobby” as he’s rocking a 737 hat lol
Would be a great Joe Rogan or Theo Von interview. Case in point why these mainstream interviews aren’t effective.
There is plenty of evidence to support roleplay as an effective method of training.
There's 0 evidence to support that slideshows are an effective method of training.
“But you have to say that”
Notice their body language right when he says that. They both pretend to start writing something at the same time. Love that he totally called that dynamic out hahaha
Wolf starting this program by noting that Warner Brothers owns them both and then seeing Nathan just giggling in his seat ….we really are in the dankest reality
Why cant CRM include one on one roleplaying hahah i dont understand
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