Tommy Tuberville Smacked With Scathing Community Note Over His Bizarre Furry Pilots Rant

(Screengrab via CSPAN) (Screengrab via Fox News)

Senator Tommy Tuberville’s (R-AL) attempt to sound the alarm over “furries” infiltrating America’s airline industry ran into a Community Note on X after he offered pilots making animal noises over the radio as evidence for his theory.

Tuberville doubled down on Thursday after declaring on the Senate floor that “many airline pilots, flight attendants, and air traffic controllers are part of the furry community.”

“I know the deranged Democrats don’t like the fact that I called out the insane FURRY CULTURE this week,” Tuberville wrote on X. “But the truth is, there is an ALARMING number of these DERANGED people working in our airline industry.”

He continued: “Don’t believe me? Just a few months ago, PILOTS were MEOWING and BARKING at each other over the radio at DCA.”

The tweet included an NBC News report on an April incident when pilots were caught meowing and barking over the radio near Reagan National Airport. Allied Pilots Association spokesman Dennis Tajer had heard similar meowing before, describing the behavior as “idle humor” and “schtick.”

At the time, the FAA nevertheless investigated the transmissions because misuse of the emergency frequency can interfere with legitimate communications.

But a Community Note appended to the post pointed readers to reporting showing that the animal noises were part of a long-running insider aviation joke put out on the emergency ‘Guard’ frequency, rather than evidence that the pilots involved belonged to the furry community.

The meowing itself is widely believed to come, at least partly, from the 2001 comedy Super Troopers, which includes a scene where the cheeky cops play “Cat Game,” trying to work the word “meow” into a traffic stop as many times as possible.

The gag became an in-joke in some professional-radio cultures, and pilots appear to have adopted it. That origin isn’t definitively proven, but that’s the longstanding explanation within aviation circles.

Another linked New York Times article reported that pilots and air traffic controllers had previously discussed hearing meowing on the frequency. None of those reports connected the practice to furry culture.

Asked by TMZ how he knew pilots were furries, Tuberville said: “Some. Not all. They have a club. They have an organization. All you gotta do is follow the information.”

He then appeared to soften his original assertion that “many” aviation workers were involved.

“Obviously, it’s probably not a whole lot of ’em,” Tuberville said.

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