[fingpilot]

I'm sure everyone has one or two of those Seahawk 'moments'.

Mine involved being rushed deadhead across the country red eye to an aircraft ready to depart NYC to Europe, somehow I was the closest current captain, and I was in Los Angeles. I ASSumed I was going to the hotel in Newark for required rest prior to flying. Nope. (You didn't sleep on the red-eye???).

Strike one.

Show up at the gate same time as the F/O. He's older than me by 10 years... hmmmm. He takes the outside preflight, I take the cockpit. Cleared to start the APU, and start the cockpit checks. Alternate pressurization controller fails it's check. Weirdly. Check the #2 AirData computer for valid inputs to controller. Surprise, it's dead. Big Red X's on 3 display tubes, and all ADC data screens in F/O's FMS computer are red and blank. He enters cockpit and actually says 'Oh I see you found my red boxes......'

Strike 2.

I pull the logbook. Usually, maintenence has pulled all back logsheets every time a plane gets to a base. Makes it tough to see what writeups have been followed up on, and who wrote them, that sort of thing. This logbook has like 3 weeks of back sheets.

This airplane has crossed the Atlantic 11 times in 3 weeks with only one AirDataComputer. Two are required, and several cross checks are required both ground and airbourne prior to going feet wet, and a confidence cross check with ground stations feet dry at other end. All required to be submitted with post flight paperwork. This F/O had been on all these flights. He admitted the falsifications......he needed the job, and had been directed by the previous captains to do it that way.

Strike 3.

I get my hat, coat, and logbook, and find a copy machine. Return the logbook, stash he copies in my briefcase, and call OPS. They plead ignorance. Chief Pilot and DirOps catch me on phone as I check into hotel, trying to get me to 'be reasonable, and take the flight'.

By the time I woke up, plane had been pulled, logbook had been 'fixed', and flight rescheduled. I called my FAA OpsInspector, and met for coffee. He got the copies, and kept them until the trials.

Took two years, whistleblower status, and over 40 citations (several $mil$ fines), before airline was shut down. Turns out it was the culture. They had gotten away with it, right under everyone's noses, as long as the paperwork was OK.

I suspect as times have gotten tough, it's still going on, more than ever.