Netherlands' manager Hensley Meulens, left, and coach Robert Eenhoorn cross their arms at the dugout in the eighth inning of their World Baseball Classic second round game at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Tuesday, March 12, 2013. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)
Former Yankees and Mets coach Hensley Meulens might be facing some trouble.
The current Rockies hitting coach shared a now-deleted video on Instagram from inside the cockpit during a team charter flight last week from Denver to Toronto. In the video, Meulens is sitting in a pilot’s chair pretending to fly the plane, with the actual pilot beside him, appearing amused.
“I’m going to land the plane tonight,” Meulens says before pretending to take control of the wheel.
As a result of this social media stunt, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has initiated an investigation into “an unauthorized person in the flight deck.”
“We’re deeply disturbed by what we see in that video, which appears to show an unauthorized person in the flight deck at cruise altitude while the autopilot was engaged,” United Airlines said in a statement to ESPN. “As a clear violation of our safety and operational policies, we’ve reported the incident to the FAA and have withheld the pilots from service while we conduct an investigation.”
Meulens played seven MLB seasons between 1989-1997, five of which were for the Yankees. In 159 games with New York, the Curacao native batted .221 with a .633 OPS, hitting 12 home runs and 46 RBIs.
Meulens transitioned to coaching in 2003. After the Yankees fired Joe Girardi in 2017, he was considered for the managerial job in the Bronx. Ultimately, New York hired Aaron Boone.
He was named the Mets bench coach in 2020 under Luis Rojas, but that lasted just one season. In 2022, the Yankees hired Meulens to be their assistant hitting coach, replacing Eric Chavez who moved to the Mets. However, that also lasted only one season as he was then hired to be the hitting coach for the Rockies in 2023, where he remains to this day.
