Originally Posted by
RyeMex
Once again, Elevation brings some critical insight into where our problem really lies.
I won't say that I haven't b****ed about the fact that we are hiring people with such little time and experience, but the fact of the matter is that the NTSB docket reveals some pretty problematic information about one of our former crew members, and the problem wasn't that he only had 1500 hours.
Additionally, I suspect that I'm not the only person who has flown with a captain or two here who have thousands of hours and many years of experience who still probably have no business being in the left seat.
Should Atlas be the place where you are given your first experience flying a jet? No. Is that really our biggest threat? No. Our biggest threat right now is what management is directing the training center to do, and the fact that it seems that some instructors are obeying. After all, JC just wants "bodies in seats".
More than a small amount of blame goes to DB for not being able to read a Mesa Training Record after hiring hundreds of Mesa pilots. I suspect she was less than honest in her interview and the FAA certainly made zero attempt to go up the chain of command to see why Atlas is hiring people like that in the first place.
Outside of Atlas the system needs to be reformed to where standardized training records are made automatically available for your interview. That would've ended CA's career and saved lives (including his...). I don't believe that even Atlas would've hired him had they known....