OK...Pinnacle a history of...based on a true story...

Fell asleep at 290 and airplane flew arrival...

Pilots get caught over Atlantic Ocean deviating from weather and have to penetrate level 5 TR to get back to land...

Pilots roll plane, switch seats, stall, and crash...

CRJ goes off runway in MKE, pilot puts it in 4 wheel drive and taxis to gate then leaves.

CRJ hits weather balloon pilots elect to continue to MEM for another 1.5 hours of flight time after dispatch uses "The Force" and convinces the pilots that "you didn't hit a weather balloon...We didn't hit a weather balloon..." Major damage to airplane.

the list goes on and on with this place, not to mention what it was like before when they were Express 1 (Hibbing, MN).

The list goes on and on...

I make sure that I do not fly on this airline ever! It's in the culture and it starts with the hiring practices.

 

yeah, we could go on, and on about all this but most of it is good ole fiction. almost everything you said above is either an out right lie, or an exaggeration.

 

FDX has had it's share of problems and FO landing ability was a factor in one of them that I know of. The MD11 is a handfull trust me, you're right it doesn't take sideloads well at all. That's why we like to hire guys with experience. Imagine if we started hiring 200 hour FOs; do you think that the landing incidents would go up or down?

I say way up.

 

It has all come from a Check Airman at Pinnacle that I know very well, and he has been at Pinnacle since it was Express 1 flying Saabs. I trust that he knows what has happened there, and NWA does a very good job of keeping stuff out of the media.

 

i would not doubt it. I am against 200 hour fo's. i have never been for them. But i happen to know that the crew in traverse city had a little more than 200 hours.. more like 4-5 years. and i also agree when hiring for larger planes, a person will require more experience to be able to operate it safely. thats why most people start in a single, go to twin, go to turbo prop, got to regional jet, go to airliner.. i believe that would be an appropriate order to things. but like i said i am sure the lady flying the fed ex plane had a little more than 200 hours.. and with a check airmen in the left seat monitoring the situation, it shouldn't have happened. but some times things do happen, and you just hope everyone is ok.

 

Making comments like that, have you ever flown the CRJ-200?

On a dry runway landing at gross weight, it can stop in just over 3000 feet according to actual emergency landing distance...which takes into account touching down 1000' down the runway and using brakes only. Obviously on a wet or a contaminated runway that distance will be longer.

For all the compromises of the CRJ-200, brakes and stopping ability are NOT one of them. The damn airplane will stop and stop quickly.

 

Then we agree with each other. Like I said "Glad everyone was OK." Just pointing out what I see as a statistical issue trending at this airline, and sorry but I didn't make this stuff up.

From what I know about the lady in question; she should not have been hired in the first place based on prior performance at other flying jobs.

 

ok, then i will go down the list.

1. Fell asleep at 290 and airplane flew arrival...
A. never heard of it so i cant comment, but like i said earlier if it were true, you would think i would have heard it mentioned in the last 2 years.

2. Pilots get caught over Atlantic Ocean deviating from weather and have to penetrate level 5 TR to get back to land...
A. Ok,, that could be anything right??? sounds like one of those stories...

3. Pilots roll plane, switch seats, stall, and crash...
A. Refering to 3701, they did not ever roll the plane. steepest bank angle was 80 (that was during the stall). and yes they did crash, empty ferry flight.

4. CRJ goes off runway in MKE, pilot puts it in 4 wheel drive and taxis to gate then leaves.
A. OK 4 wheel drive???? not sure if the planes at fed ex have 4 wheel drive but we were to cheap to get that option. Like i said before he told everyone what happened, mtx had him get out and look around the plane, then told him he could taxi to the gate to let the people off, he called ground and got permision to do so, and he actually came to rest after sliding off the runway on the ramp, so he didn't have that far to go.

5. CRJ hits weather balloon pilots elect to continue to MEM for another 1.5 hours of flight time after dispatch uses "The Force" and convinces the pilots that "you didn't hit a weather balloon...We didn't hit a weather balloon..." Major damage to airplane.
A. i actually flew with captain after this happened. They weren't sure what they hit, but they knew they hit something. I don't believe in the force, so i actually don't think that was a factor. Also they were only 30 min out, and the plane was flying and behaving normal. When they got on the ground they noticed the left cowl was damaged, so they had to do an overhaul of the engine (since that is required anytime the damage occurs inflight).

 

yes but you could take the statistics at any airline and say... WOW everyone is dangerous. How many incidents do you think skywest, asa, mesaba, express jet, mesa, and others have....??

go to this website and just put the airline in...

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/query.asp

in the last 7 years pinnacle only has 3 entries, jefferson city, MKE, and ashville (this is where the window caught on fire).
in the last 7 years fed ex has had 24 incidents/accidents.

so what the statistical trends show is that with 800 flights a day at pinnacle, in the last 7 years there have been 3 incidents/accidents, that is pretty good.

 

Plus the flight was running 2 hours late....