Cohen is right when he said "I can't speak for their individual choice" as in to become pilots. He is part of the crowd along with management that is mocking us when they know that there will be pilots lining up to do this job regardless. You can just hear it and see it all over that pawn's face. Also very nice of him to compare this job to a 9/5 as far as fatigue, what a moron.

I also agree that the FAA has a dirty role in this as well and nobody has challenged them yet considering they can change the duty times immediately if they want. Unfortunately they only go by statistics hopefully this latest static will be enough but I really doubt it.

Don't worry. The FAA will change the rules when there are enough crashes caused by pilots flying fatigued. I'm not going to be one of those pilots, though. I'd rather find myself explaining to my chief pilot why I asked for an extra hour or two of rest than being killed in an accident because I flew when I wasn't fit to fly. That's just me, though.

FOQA isn't an FAA program as stated in the report. The European carriers have had it for almost 40 years. It's relativey new in the US.

FOQA is not the answer to this particular problem.

Perhaps having people like Cohen replaced by intelligent individuals who actually care about safety would be a start.

His defensive, somewhat hostile manerism speaks volumes. He's clearly in over his head!


AL

Why should they? Do you fly less safely because you are not well paid?

No, they won't. There have already been many accidents, including the infamous Little Rock American Airlines (mainline) accident where fatigue was named as a significant factor. The NTSB urged changes. They did not happen. They will not happen.

Flight Magazine blog comment
 

Colgan Air Q400 investigation not so simple either

By Kieran Daly

www.flightglobal.com

That Turkish Airlines investigation in the previous post isn't the only one turning out to be more subtle in terms of pilot performance than first impressions suggested.

In a couple of weeks time the US NTSB will hold its public hearing on the Colgan Air Bombardier Q400 crash at Buffalo back in February. I understand it's going to be a messy business that will shine a light into some shady corners of the regional airline business.
On the one hand you can expect confirmation that icing had not very much to do with what happened and that the crew's performance was not all it might have been.

But you may also hear some fairly startling details about the lifestyles of regional pilots, especially junior ones. Their salaries for example will be a surprise to a lot of people, and once you know that figure you won't be surprised to learn how tricky it is for them to live in New York.

And then you can imagine how they get round that, and think about how well you'd fly an aircraft (or drive a car for that matter) if you had the sort of commute that they often do.

Well, get a base somewhere else then, you might say. But of course bases have been opening and closing quite a bit, and more often the latter. So then what? And most importantly, whose responsibility is it to manage that and watch out for fatigue?

Of course it's up to the pilot, but what corporate culture do these people work in? Can you really declare that your're fatigued? What's the sick-leave policy like if you've got a heavy cold say?

Of course those are only two holes in the cheese, there should still be plenty of protection thanks to training. So just how good is the training? Well, these folks are licensed, so it must be reasonable - but is reasonable actually good enough?

And is the FAA really on the case as the years roll by?

I was able to discuss this with both management (not Colgan) and union people in the US last week and their opinions were far apart. Management point, not unreasonably I suppose, to the statistical safety record and point out that pilots go into this stuff voluntarily with eyes open. Unions complain about young, keen pilots being forced into situations that are not good for them or anyone else.

I think the NTSB is going to be treading a fine line when it eventually gets round to drafting the report.

XJ will have it soon......hopefully

We have it at ExpressJet

I think everybody should be doing a PC after a 16 hour day to see how well people do compared to getting up 2 hours before the ride and getting a nice breakfast. I'm sure there would be some startling numbers with that.

Hard to believe people like Cohen is the President of the Regional Pilots Association. What Cohen and the FAA refuses to acknowledge is that although low pay and low experience pilots MAY contribute to the deterioration of safety in the airline industry, the SINGLE MOST threat to safety is pilot fatigue directly caused by regional airlines managements' scheduling practices.

One, there should be no CDOs (High speeds) period. They are UNSAFE for anyone. Spoke to several CAs with close to 20,000 hours and they all said it is unsafe even after one high speed turn.

Second, airline management should not be allowed to schedule pairings with overnights less than 10 hours. 10 hour layover is in my opinion a bare MINIMUM necessary for pilots to get adequate rest.

Three, time spent waiting for passengers to deplane, writing up maintenance logs after the flight, leaving the terminal at the end of the day and waiting for the hotel shuttle van should NOT be counted as the REST period. Time for REST PERIOD should start when crews check in at the hotel for the night.