On this infamous date, if you didn’t already have enough reasons to hate flying, along comes Jeff Smisek.

He resigned as CEO, president and chairman of United Airlines this week amid a corruption probe by federal investigators.

Of course, Smisek denies any wrongdoing.

Because he quit instead of being sacked, he’s entitled to his full severance package, which is, to put it mildly, pretty darn impressive. According to a regulatory filing, United will gift Smisek nearly $5 million in cash plus other financial compensation that could top $20 million. (Remember, he resigned: he was not fired.)

In case he’s ever in the mood to travel; no problem. Smisek gets free first-class tickets on United for the rest of his life, cocktails included. What United should have done is force him to fly coach for the rest of his life along with the majority of his customers, knees against their chins, while his company is losing their luggage. Aviation Week magazine reported that United is now planning to add a 10th seat to some nine-seat coach rows on its Boeing 777s. Good move, Jeff. We’ll all remember you for that.

Smizak also gets free airport parking for life, health insurance until he’s eligible for Medicare in about four years and, oh yes, the keys to his company car.

That’s a mighty sweet deal for a bungling ex-CEO whose company’s stock is down 15% this year, who screwed up United’s merger with Continental (more on that later), who hasn’t been able to make nice with labor groups and whose airline is rated last in customer satisfaction among big carriers by J.D. Power.

Take airfares. Average ticket prices fell 5.6% in July, the steepest decline in almost two decades, government statistics show. But considering that the cost of jet fuel is down nearly 50% from a year ago, it hardly seems as if passengers are sharing in the carriers’ newfound wealth.

Go forth in hell, Jeff, with your degrees from Princeton and Harvard Law: maybe you should have taken courses in marketing and human relations.

Mergers:  Today’s airlines are in the hands of lawyers and accountants with no training or practical experience in running a successful business. These narcissist egoists think their self-worth is measured by the size of the corporations they head, not by the quality of service they provide to customers or the public in general. They are abetted in this folly by the greed of the investment banking community – always too anxious to construct a merger – then bludgeon a clueless government agency into approving it – all in the misguided notion it will help the flying public.

Never has an airline merger benefitted consumers,  shareholders of either entity or society in general.  The only beneficiaries are the bankers who command huge fees to put the deal together and the incompetent CEOs of the companies who, like Mr. Smisek, receive outsize payouts for running the company into the ground. (Note to Board of Directors:  If your CEO can’t run a small enterprise, how in hell do you expect him/her to run a larger one?)

For years, I was a marketer of large scale computer and communications equipment to airlines worldwide. I loved to fly. I loved the industry and the people in it. They were intensely loyal to their employers and sincerely concerned with building loyal customer relations. CEOs then included people with broad industry experience, many were former pilots, including: Bob Six of Continental, Eddie Rickenbacker of Eastern, C.R. Smith of American, Harding Lawrence of Braniff, and Juan Trippe of Pan Am. These pioneers are gone now, replaced by puppets approved by investment bankers.

Along with the sheer insanity of airline management practices (hub/spoke system, frequent flier miles, baggage fees.etc.) comes the added government interference called TSA.

In late June the American people learned that, in a test of airport security, the Transportation Security Administration failed miserably. Simulated explosives and weapons got past airport screeners on 67 out of 70 occasions.

That’s a failure rate of 95 percent!

Where is the Congressional outrage? They must be too busy extolling the latest employment numbers which include all those empty suits at TSA.

Sadly, anyone who has passed through an American airport in the last dozen years has removed shoes, laptops and shampoo, experienced mind-numbing delays and endured seemingly arbitrary rules—all without any real sense of security. Grandma’s walker might not get past these gimlet-eyed professionals, but apparently the actual dangerous stuff still does.

So our air transportation system is now roiling in a Perfect Storm of incompetence and chaos, all brought to us by investment bankers and lobbyists.

Nowadays, my destinations of choice when leaving home in Connecticut are Colorado and/or Florida.

I always drive! That way I know I can take my golf clubs and gun (if needed).

You are welcome.

For more insightful commentary go to my blog at Jameshpyle.com