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Originally posted by ben parrish
I thought airlines had the FAA to watch safety;
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That's what most people think, but the FAA serves two masters. One of it's prime missions is promoting air commerce - meaning the airlines. Like it or not, it's a fact that change (from the regulatory side) comes about as a direct result of body count. The FAA *does* look at safety - if it doesn't cost too much - but they typically do so after-the-fact. There are a lot of safety improvements that could be made but which have not, simply because of cost. That doesn't help you if you're at the bottom of a smoking crater; it's the pilots that will keep you out of the crater in the first place. Oh, yeah - the FAA *loves* paperwork.
It doesn't hurt to remember that airline management does not come from "operations" today - meaning pilots and engineering types. They come from finance and marketing and have no clue what it means to demand that you take an aircraft into weather on one remaining generator to a destination at minimums with thunderstorms. No clue. And they get very irate when a pilot says NO. We're not talking about a union that demands paying someone $100K/year to mount tires, were talking about an association that helps the pilots stay in the cockpit when they do what is necessary to keep you alive. The pay pilots receive is widely misunderstood, but I would be willing to bet that if you surveyed the passengers of an aircraft in trouble, none of them would think them overpaid.
Quote:
Originally posted by ben parrish
Now as far as a company being able to keep employee paid contributions..that is total BULL$H!T. No excuse for that.
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Agreed, but that's what's happening.