Originally Posted by
newarkblows
I disagree and there are a lot of pilots 135/121 with dings all over their records to prove you wrong. A handful of busts means nothing if the applicant can take responsibility for what happened, learn from it, and show that he has improved himself since the bust. Its amazing how many people at majors and regionals today have less then spectacular records. Speeding tickets happen, busts happen, and sometimes FAA violations happen... it doesnt have to be the kiss of death to an applicant. None of them are good, by any means, but sometimes things happen.
I know three pilots flying at majors that had dui's prior to getting hired. I know of an ex-xjt captain who failed training events throughout his career and was picked up by a major. The point is crazy things happen and you are never out of the running unless you dont apply.
That was then, this is now...the hiring experiences of somebody with many years on a major airline seniority list really don't apply to what's going on today. I can almost guarantee that nobody with 2 duis will be getting hired at any major airline in the forseeable future...unless those duis are 30 years old or maybe the applicant has some REALLY good family connections...
Society in general is a lot more litigious, which leads to a very high level of sensitivity to the "paper person". Frankly that is more important to most employers than the real person, particularly in a high-liability business like airlines. The most important attributes of the paper person in our industry are going to be flight time, training history, incident/accident history, and criminal history. Next are things like employer reference, credit history, lawsuit history, etc.
Now if the "pilot shortage" actually materializes, that could all change of course.