Nathan Fielder Calls the FAA “Dumb” After Agency Dismisses ‘The Rehearsal’ Season 2’s Message

Captain Nathan Fielder is probably not going to be cleared for takeoff anytime soon.

On the second season of Fielder’s HBO series The Rehearsal, the Nathan for You comedian aimed to stop airplane crashes before they happen by facilitating better give-and-take communication between a pilot and co-pilot. Fielder’s theory: co-pilots do not often speak up when a superior officer makes a decision they do not agree with.

To prove his hypothesis, Fielder went as far as becoming a certified 737 pilot to try his communication techniques out firsthand. The Rehearsal attempted to get Fielder’s message to the federal government, but so far it has been met with skepticism, to put it kindly.

The Federal Aviation Administration told CNN that it “mandates all airline pilots and crew members to complete interpersonal communication training.” The FAA “says it isn’t seeing the data that supports the show’s central claim, that pilot communications is to blame for airline disaster,” Pamela Brown said on Thursday’s The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown.

Fielder responded, “That’s dumb. They’re dumb.”

“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 you are a co-pilot and the captain does something wrong, you need to speak up about it,” Fielder continued. “That’s all. That’s the training. And they talk about some crashes that happened, but they don’t do anything that makes it stick emotionally.”

In discussing cockpit power dynamics, Fielder used Blitzer and Brown as a pilot/co-pilot example. Actually, he did it twice.

“It’s like a human thing. You know what I mean? Like 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 Wolf or — because you’re — between you two, who would be like the boss or the more — like you’re Wolf Blitzer, right?” Fielder said the second time. “So, you’re like, your name is first on the thing. So, I’m sure Pamela, 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.”

“She’s very blunt,” Blitzer said.

Fielder pushed back a bit on that, creating this exchange:

Brown: We actually have a pretty — I understand your point — 

Fielder: But you have to say that now.

Brown: No, I think this show — 

Fielder: I know. But you don’t want to say to Wolf you can’t — you know, as a journalist, you don’t want to say, oh, I don’t want to —

Blitzer: She says that.

Fielder: She says it to you?

Blitzer: Yes.

Fielder (to Blitzer): So, maybe you’re afraid to say something.

Brown: Here’s the great thing about Wolf is he doesn’t have an ego.

Blitzer: I’m very blunt with her too.

Fielder: OK.

Brown: He has no ego. But I take your point that like — 

Fielder: I mean, Wolf’s in movies and stuff.

Brown: He’s a big deal. There is no question.

Fielder: So, that’s intimidating. That can be intimidating.

Brown: That can be intimidating.

Fielder: That’s sort of the thing where we’re trying to explore a little bit.

Watch the segment here: