bluefishbeagle

Some here seem to have a holier than thou attitude that's just plain sickening. Many share the opinion that these pilots deserve everything they are getting, if that's your opinion You have a right to it but I disagree, strongly.

Lets look at the big picture and the facts for a moment. Captain Timothy Cheney and First Officer Richard Cole from the reports I've read are not inexperienced, rouge, mavericks, drunks, druggies, daredevil, barnstorming pilots who get their jollies doing loops in the sky while flying John Q. Public.

Instead from the reports presented they turn out to be two highly skilled professional pilots with decades of experience and thousands of hours flying in adverse weather and who have somehow managed to get past in my estimate between them hundreds of check rides, flight training events, line checks and other training sessions that a private pilot would shudder even to imagine.

Now due to this one event they are being thrown to the lions and fed to the media who are all to happy to shred them to pieces without regard for their families or their personal dignity all in front of every person in American and half the world. There is a mob mentality playing out that perhaps explains why so many injustices have occurred in the history of men. It explains why lynch mobs stood idly by while their friends and neighbors were hanged without so much as one person saying stop this madness.

Why do pilots of all people join in on this? Is it because it makes some feel better when those we consider better than us fall? For goodness sake man look at the facts. No one was harmed or really in any immediate danger, you say but the potential for disaster was there! Of course it was but what the flying public doesn't want to admit it is there every time they (or we) step foot on and airplane. The public would like to think that the FAA and our government keeps them safe and our politicians are only to happy to keep that allusion alive but it's not true. Now the knee jerk reaction is to ban laptops like thats going to solve the problem. Instead of banning laptops as a way to correct errors like this we should be doing studies and an in depth analysis of why and how it happened and what can be done to correct the loss of awareness. Learning not to let anything distract you to that extant will stop this from happening again removing the object of distraction is only a bandaid fix since there are many other devices that would have to be banned too.


Yes these men made a mistake, one mistake in years and years of flying. In my opinion they are victims themselves. This country has one of the best and safest aviation transportation systems in the WORLD period. It will not be made safer by imprisoning (as some here have suggested) those who err. We surely need to correct errors and imperfections in the system but not by sacrificing the brightest and best to a blood thirsty public. If we do we are no better than some of the second rate third world countries to the south.

I do not know or have ever met Captain Timothy Cheney and First Officer Richard Cole but I say to you both I would fly with either or both of you anytime anywhere just provide the pillows so I can get some sleep and perhaps forget this nightmare event. As much I would like to think it will be over in the morning it won't be. It won't be over until the intoxicated public who are drunk on your blood find a new victim to make themselves feel better. You and your families have my sincerest best wishes.

newKnow

I am sad that I didn't write something like this first. I tried, but didn't do it nearly as well.

Great post.

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ToiletDuck

Is ALPA taking all the legal actions they can to have the FAA's decision overturned? Where are they in the process and what help are they offering the guys?

I hope they get it overturned.

captjns

While it's not suggested that Cheney nor Cole woke up that morning and collaborated over breakfast to subvert company SOPs or violate FARs, or allow an aircraft to be operated in a reckless and endangering manner... but alas, according to the FAA they did.

Unless Cheney and Cole and prove otherwise, the best they can hope for is the certificate revocation is changed to certificate suspension.

With that being said, I’m sure that their ALPA attorneys will handle their case with the utmost dedication on their behalf.