Originally Posted by
Onfinal
I agree with you that we must be careful and clearly define our goals in this effort. That is why I am more disappointed right now in ALPA and what should be huge opportunity to address long standing issues of substandard pay, fatigue, unrealistic scheduling, and the fraud that the mainline carriers conduct through their proxy regionals. These should be carefully addressed and planned, but ALPA so far has been silent. We only have a week or so for this to be news before the public and the politicians move on to something else. Ir it is not accelerated and marketed now, we will miss the opportunity.
However, I strongly disagree with you on simply calling this pilot error. Why must we assume that every pilot that bends an airplane is an incompetent, and fool. It is clear to me that their were some other serious mitigating conditions here, specifically fatigue. Are you Newark based, or at any of the New York airports? Do you have any idea what that operation is like, and how it can break one down physically and mentally? Look at the slow response in the animation, I beleive that these two were seriously fatigued. And as far as converation below 10,000 feet... there have been times that I've conducted conversations on late flights, just to keep alert. There are some serious structural problems in this industry. What I absolutely hate, is there are lot of people who use these situations to fan their own egos!
Onfinal
Onfinal, I agree with your first paragraph, we(Pilot Unions) have a window of opportunity that we need to press for improvements in our industry.
However, we can't have it both ways,if we want to be paid like professionals we have to constantly act and perform like professionals. In our industry fatigue will happen and then we rely on training and experience.I have never flown at a regional but I bet they train to the same standards as a major,and I bet they train approach to a stall(stick shaker) the same way. This pilot had not 1 but 2 chances to recover and messed up both of them ! I'm sorry but that is pilot error pure and simple.He wasn't trained that way but for some unknown reason he reacted that way and gave all professional pilots a black eye. He also brought bias against all the Regional pilots who are very professional and doing a great job day in and day out under less than ideal conditions.We also have to police ourselves to make sure that consistent sub-standard performers seek another profession,harsh but in an industry where mistakes are often fatal I can see no other way.I'm ready for the darts. Finis