Airline pilot caught making profane rant about liberals

An airline pilot's profanity-laden rant against liberals in the San Francisco Bay Area was caught on a hot mic as he awaited takeoff. And now the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.

The Mineta San Jose International Airport's air traffic control scanner recorded the verbal tirade on March 13. Live ATC archived the recording.

The audio is choppy and the context around the rant remains unclear, according to travel site One Mile at a Time, which was the first to report the incident.

"F--- this place, Goddamn liberal f----," the unidentified Southwest Airlines pilot says on the recording. "F------ weirdos, probably driving around in f------ Hyundais ... go slow as f---."

The pilot also worked in an admiring reference to "coal rolling," which is modifying a truck to spew out more exhaust. A few seconds later, he can be heard telling air traffic controllers, "Southwest 531 is ready to go." 

The FAA reported the incident to the airline.

"FAA regulations prohibit airline pilots from talking about subjects that are unrelated to safely conducting their flight while taxiing and while flying below 10,000 feet altitude," FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said in a statement.

Southwest declined to identify the pilot. A spokesperson said the airline was handling the matter internally.

"Our corporate culture is built on a tenet of treating others with concern and dignity and the comments are inconsistent with the professional behavior and overall respect that we require from our employees," spokesman Chris Mainz said.

You can listen to the uncensored audio at ktvu.com; discretion is advised. With The Associated Press.

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