I thought the beginning of the article was actually fairly good. I thought the reporter was trying to get the reader to understand that the perception of the people he was quoting was wrong - like when he clarified the size and age of the Q400.
The lady at the end who said:
"It's the combination of things that worry me," a business traveler based in Santa Barbara, California, told me last week. "I see children going into the cockpit of small planes run by airlines I've never heard of and I say to myself, 'Do I really want to be on this flight?'"
Her answer, at least for the moment, is no. She's stopped booking the regional jets operated by Skywest Airlines under the United Express banner for the 262-mile flight to San Francisco. Now she pilots her 2007 Honda SUV up the freeway to meet with her Bay Area clients.
Well....congrats. She just put herself in a whole lot more danger drinving on the CA highway system than she would have ever faced in the air.
I guess I am actually in the minority when it comes to CRJs/ERJs. I like them. I think they look like sleek airplanes. I love the fancy looking cockpits. I don't mind seeing fairly young pilots sitting in the cockpit because I know the training that they have been through and I know that it is a crew up front looking out for each other. I've also been flying long enough to know what can happen and I am aware, I listen to the safety briefing and refresh my memory on the materials (twice recently I've have had the F/As replace the safety info card because there was gum stuck between the pages. When were they last looked at I wonder?). I would like to FLY them and the shorter routes with more aprroaches, takeoffs and landings; but the business side just kills the buzz to tell the truth. It is a disappointment.
USMCFLYR