Quote:
Originally Posted by VaSteve
What about that low rent airline that crashed in Buffalo a couple years ago due to a low hours pilot. I think they are still flying. But I want to hear more of what Rattlesnak is talking about.
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You will see this more at the regionals than you will at a mainline carrier. The mainline unions are so ingrained in the industry there is no way the airlines could ever run without them. My last company was proudly non union for many years until the manipulation and fear mongering style of management advocated the pilots to vote a union in.
In a true reversal of most industries, many pilot groups that were non union for many years have recently all but a few voted unions in for schedule and job protection issues.
A few true examples of the countless stories I've heard before the union got voted in at my company: Captain is Pilot in Command and responsible for the flight. First Officer notices several flat spots and cords showing on the tire and notifies captain. CPT refuses to write it up fearing that "he will get fired if we don't finish these next two legs". FO refuses to fly the trip because of the obvious hazard and he gets fired.
After a very long day and with 15 minutes of duty left, company insists that crew position the airplane to another airport approx 1.2 hours away. An obvious blantant and illegal trip per the FAA. Crew refuses trip due to duty time regs and they both get fired.
Those are a small sampling of the things that happened before the union was voted in. The union offers legal protection against things like this. Things like that simply will not happen with a union on the property.
And the first instance? He took the company to court and used the whistle-blower defense and spilled the beans on a lot of wrongdoings and he won.. handily..
Quote:
Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy
Haven't there been multiple accidents in recent history involving senior pilots who have failed recurrent training but been allowed to retake (against instructor recommendation) because of their seniority? I work in aerospace and have spent a lot of time in flight test, I know that experience is not necessarily consistent with ability when it comes to pilots.
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I have only heard of one of these instances, (Buffalo Colgan crash) and while that captain had failed numerous checkrides, he was a relatively low time pilot and not very senior.