Originally Posted by sailingfun

This goes back to the original build up of NYC after the Pan Am purchase. Layover crews proved highly unreliable for early departures even back then when we had 4 day west coast trips with 3 NYC layovers and 5 AM shows for all of them. Layover crews would be delayed by weather and or mechanical issues and be illegal to depart in the morning or not even arrive. We were getting crucified by business travelers for our poor performance other than the shuttle which on the 727 was our only narrow body base in NY. Pilots from other bases complained bitterly about the early NYC departures. We almost planted a 727 8 miles short of 9R after a crew exhausted by early NY departures lost all SA and thinking they were high went idle boards and broke out of the clouds at 800 AGL to a face full of pine trees. They rounded out quite low. This led to many improvements in work rules and a change in basing strategy.