Page 3 - Express Jet News Today

Stewardess. >> thank you for coming in. i appreciate it. we reached out to express jet, by the way, who would not comment on the case specifically but said, quote, we embrace and respect the values of all of our team members. we are an equal opportunity employer with a long history of diversity in our work force. and good morning. im carol costello. thank you for joining me. the united nations says more than 366,000 migrants and refugees have made the dangerous voyage this year to reach euro...

Carol. 40-year-old shari stanley says she was suspended for her muslim beliefs. her critics say she knew the responsibilities before she took the job. her attorney says shes the victim of discrimination. stanley says she was suspended from her job as a flight attendant because of her religious beliefs. this week the 40-year-old michigan woman filed a charge of discrimination against regional airline express jet. the issue, stanley converted to islam two years ago. she says she only learned recen...

Played before starting this report. part of wha complicates this is she works for a regional airline. express jet is a small carrier. its not a big company where you have full flights and other flight attendants. often times shes on a flight with 50 people. theres not another flight attendant onboard. it does impact other co-workers. thats the point that express jet may be making here during this investigati with equal employment opportunity commission. they have this. they started their investi...

Commission. expressjet did release a statement. it says, we embrace and respect the values of all of our team members. we are an equal opportunity employer with a long history of diversity in the workplace. now, where this gets complicated is that charee stanley works for a very small regional company where often times shes the only flight attendant. we spoke to mary schiavo. she says that this really makes it more difficult. no way a pilot can come back from the cockpit to serve alcoholic drink...

Its a conversation thats been talked about a lot this week due to events that have been happening in kentucky. but now a muslim flight attendant says that she was suspended for refusing to serve alcohol. shari says she is employed by express jet and her faith doesnt allow her to consume or serve alcoholic beverages. she says that shes being discriminated against because of her religion. its a case that as i just said strikes a kind of similar tone to that of the county clerk in kentucky who is i...

Essentially her company saying i can no longer do this, how can we work this out? >> shes had the job for three years. she was not muslim when she took the job. she converted a year after taking that job. she says its against her muslim beliefs to serve alcohol. they come to an agreement and they have this reasonable accommodation where she doesnt have to serve alcohol. other airline flight attendants pick up that responsibility. it seemed to be working out just fine. two months later one of her...

On? >> reporter: this is no longer surprising. the faa says there are two reports every single day from pilots of helicopters or airplanes of drones flying uncomfortably close during takeoff or on approach for landing. near small, medium and large airports nationwide. a daily occurrence, despite the fact the faa restricts unmanned aircraft hobbiests from flying at five miles from an airport and highest altitude of 400 feet. four different planes on approach to newark just after noon sunday when ...

Do you get a sense that theyre trying to put people on flights on other airlines. >> im actually sitting on a plane right now on uniteds express jet. we pulled up to the gate and people are waiting to get off the plane. i think people will start to get a sense if there may be an issue and they have a connection. as of now i think were really in the midst of how we get to our next destination. i had to come back with my producer to go to work. we booked knowing that there was this ground stop iss...

Of each other as they were both taking off in houston. all this comes as the faa investigates claims a flight from hawaii to l.a. went into a steep dive to avoid hitting another plane over the pacific ocean. and two days before that, an express jet cleared for takeoff at newark airport just as the united airlines flight was landing at an intersecting runway. you might be asking, what the heck is going on? and are we still safe to fly? joining me now is mike boyd, aviation security analyst with b...

The cause of these frightening close calls. >> reporter: the close calls involve air traffic controllers on each end of the country. may 9th in houston, united flight 601 was departing from vancouver on runway 9 as united flight 437 was leaving from mexico city on runway 15. the controller apparently made a serious mistake. >> 601, thank you, heading 340. >> instead of telling the vancouver flight to turn left he told him to turn right into the path of the other plane. the controller then quickl...