November 16, 2015: Las Vegas-based low-cost carrier Allegiant Air showed “no class” in firing one of their flight captains for declaring an inflight emergency on his MD-80 jet (when told shortly after take off that a crew member smelled smoke) and made an emergency landing at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport in Florida and used the evacuation slides to get passengers quickly off the plane. Ground observers also are quoted as saying they saw smoke coming from one of the jets engines. Apparently the captain hadn’t received proper authorization from his company to off-load the passengers on the airport runway — so they fired him. Also be aware that Allegiant Air has been under pressure from their pilots the last few months during contract talks — who say the airline is not keeping up adequate standards in aircraft maintenance and safety. Allegiant serves 17 destinations, including Hawaii, in the US. I don’t know about you, but I think I would go along with the pilot’s decision — maybe punish him if they must by promoting him to management to help oversee internal issues?
