Originally Posted by
KiloAlpha
Just thinkin' out loud here, but how about this. If the FAA mandated that all airline crew members must have an ATP and the minimum requirement for an ATP was 3000 hours, then in theory supply would decrease and airlines would have to raise wages to attract people. I dunno..
In logical theory, sure. But as we've seen, logic has no place in this career field, especially when it comes to pay.
Originally Posted by
Flyby1206
Minimum wage will help us all to pay the bills, but it wont have a direct effect on safety(You can still pay a 200hr pilot $50k to fly a plane). If the government raises the minimum requirements to fly for a 121 carrier then that will directly effect safety by requiring more experience/knowledge in order to get into the cockpit. The higher required experience/knowledge will have an indirect effect on wages as well.
We can go round and round all day with this, let's see; AA at LIT and Columbia, DAL (N) overflight, DAL (S) taxi way landing, CAL taxi way landing, UAL 744 in SFO, etc.
Experienced, well trained, higher compensated pilots screw up and kill people just as easily as those that aren't, end of story. It's been happening for years, and probably won't change since pilots being human beings are the weakest link in the safety chain.