Originally Posted by
John Pennekamp
I think what some of us had to do to get our 1st airline job "back in the day" is pretty irrelevant. It is what it is today.
And it's very likely that a clause will be inserted grandfathering current pilots. I would think both the unions and management would be campaigning for that.
I think that is probably the most unlikely thing that could happen.
The entire reason the Congress has taken up this issue is because of the Failure of the FAA to address the issue, and the magnitude of media exposure of this one accident.
The motivation is to increase safety for passengers, or at least give the impression that Congress is acting to increase safety. Grandfathering does NOTHING to increase safety, or the public perception of increasing safety. These people will be running again soon, and passing a bill that doesn't require any change to existing standards just allows more of the same to continue... I know it's BS, you know it's BS, but it is about the perception for the media and the public... which is why they will not grandfather existing pilots who are of the same skill level and training as the crash pilots.
They will have a grace period, to allow existing pilots to obtain the required ratings and in some cases the required PIC time, to obtain the ATP license.... But that is not grandfathering.