Originally Posted by
stbloc
If they had no business flying then why were they hired? It seems to me that they were obviously qualified under the law or they wouldn't have been hired? I'm I missing something here? So if they didn't have enough PIC tome for upgrade, that should fall on there employers hands since they knew this in the interview.
If you look at the rest of the world they hire people with only 250 hours, and into larger jets then a Q400. Why should Americans be any different? I can only think of one reason why we shouldn't hire a 250 hour pilot. That's because obtaining a FAA certificate is a complete joke compared to most countries.
The employer did not hire them into the job description CRJ Captain, they were hired as CRJ First Officers, which required only a wet ink commercial (I got hired with relatively wet ink on mine, 420 hours, now I have 2000 and I fly a C207, with gobs of PIC time). Now as a CRJ First Officer they are allowed to upgrade when they become qualified and are senior enough, it is not the company's responsibility to qualify you to fly an aircraft, if you hadn't intended on being a professional FO (which people do) then you should have built your experience further before going to the airlines.
As far as "Why should American's be different?"...
There's a reason that a lot of the contract flying in the world is done by Americans, and as far as licensing is concerned the PPL and CPL are not up to the ICAO standards, however a US ATP with sufficient PIC time is worth a hundred fold it's weight in gold around the world.