Originally Posted by bedrock

The reason for the 1500 hr rule, is because the families of Colgan 3407 lobbied hard and exposed that the airlines would not regulate themselves and that there was too much back scratching between the FAA and the airlines which they supposedly regulate--which was shown on the "Chuck Colgan is friend of the FAA testimony". The politicians did try to avoid raising the requiremnts, but the families would not let the issue die. They followed the lawmakers around, brought a lot of heat on them. Prior to this, MESA was actually hiring 250 hr pilots for a short time.