FAA fines Colgan
 

FAA Proposes $1.9 Million Fine Against Colgan Air Over Improper Cabin Crew Fire Training | NYCAviation

That's a lot of money

Still a few shreds of the old Colgan corporate culture left. It's good to be home.

Any idea when this happened, I could not find a date

What a surprise!

And in 3.... 2...... 1....... Someone will post that pinnacle is paying the fine for us. Probably straight out of the pilots checks... Lol

Not sure, but I can tell you a website dedicated to plane spotting probably has solid journalistic cred.

November 2009

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The extinguishers they used in training didn't have the rubber hose extension on them. All crew members had to be retrained

Considering that Boeing flew the website founder/administrator to the Paris Air Show, and NASA gave him full access at the last shuttle launch, I would say that the website has some credit. But just to appease you, here is CNN reporting it. Colgan Air faces $1.9 million fine over fire extinguisher training - CNN.com

I know out of HPN one morning my crew road on the van with a Colgan crew. In talking to the new upgraded CA, brand new hire FO and also FA we got to talking about the Saab and how they were going from HPN-IAD. Come to find out the CA then heard from the FA that she had been DHD into HPN to cover the flight. Ended up she was a Q FA and had never flown on the Saab...... We thought ok, odd but maybe they are common and its ok?

Long story short, we thought if it were an issue the CA would have taken care of it..... At the end of the Runway we hear, "Colgan XXX if you are not ready let me know." The response, "The FA is brand new to this plane and we will let you know." From that day on we had wondered about it and still had us wondering if they were trained on ALL AC or just a type..... So to learn about this at Colgan does not shock me..... Compared to this time where the FA flew a plane from HPN-IAD she had never been properly trained on.....

All FA's at 9L are dual qualified (except about 50, which they will be) on the Saab and Q. More than likely the FA hadn't flown on the Saab ever or in a long time but was qualified. Only know this because I found out today in FO new hire class. :D

They must have forgotten the pizza last month at the FSDO....

Well needless to say that was the "old" Colgan mentality and many of those Colganites that steered our ship back then are gone. Things have improved since their departure. Unfortunately, we're still being labeled as Chuck Colgan's airline and its nothing like it once was. :rolleyes:

Sad it took what it did to have make that happen. In a perfect world Chuck would be in jail, not enjoying a golden parachute.

I agree with you. At least he could come back and hire flight attendants again. Since his departure our "layover" quality has gone down hill :cool:

They actually were signing FAs off on Saab without any IOE, typical Colgan Worthlessness in this World of trying to save a $1

Its pretty common to get FA's from the Q but they were all trained to fly the Saab. The problem is that the Q FA's are in general spoiled and seldom fly on the Saab. They aren't used to doing the announcements (cd recording in the Q) and only having about 5 minutes from the second engine startup to takeoff (if that). So we end up holding short of the runway waiting for them to finish their announcements and let us know that the cabin is secure for takeoff. About 90% of the time, getting a Q FA means they will break the cabin door stairs by not hitting the release to bring them up.

Not that I'm defending the company's practices but this does seem like a really stupid proposed fine when all it comes down to is a rubber hose. It seems that someone at the FSDO is trying to coming up with their own way to balance the FAA's budget.

...or maybe the FAA got out the microscope to have a look at an airline with a fatal crash and wrong airport landing under its belt in the last 2.5 years.

Yeah, that's it. :rolleyes: Please, spare us your superiority complex. Neither of those events are remotely related to this outlandish proposal.

Seriously, almost 2 MILLION dollars because the training extinguishers don't have a 12" hose but the ones in the plane do?!? Get real! It's a fire extinguisher, they all operate the same. Pull (pin), Point (base of fire/ source), Squeeze (handle/ trigger), Sweep (spray entire area).

This is ridiculous, plain and simple.

Agreed Cruise!

Gulfstream got their fine reduced from $2mil to $300K. And they were taking air conditioners off of Ford trucks and putting them in their 1900s.

This is an absurd fine. However- this all stems from the used car salesman's- "move the rig" mentality.

I think you guys are missing the point. The faa told colgan that the flight attendants still needed more training. Colgan refused to accept this and continued to work the flight attendants. They refused out of ignorance of how the faa works or because of a long standing callous disregard for safety when it endangers the bottom line. I understand it is slightly ridiculous but this isn't something colgan alone is getting picked on for. With a less then stellar safety record you are guaranteed to be under the microscope whether it is deserved or not. There is a good reason that most airlines have legal compliance positions. This is nothing to do with crews but everything to do with a safety culture that has been bought, merged, reviewed, changed, and is still changing.

Oh please don't think I or Cruise are defending their position. It's an old Colgan decision, plain and simple.

I think the size of the fine is an outrage, not the fine in and of itself. Every airline has had minor problems like this, but someone in the FAA is going after Colgan. Because anywhere else, this would have been swept under te rug.

According to former FAA Inspector Chris Monteleon, the FAA were in bed with Colgan management. He was tasked to making sure that Colgan was in compliance with Regulations etc. So when Monteleon tried to tell his superiors that Colgan was not in compliance his manager told him and I quote "Mike Colgan is a friend of this office" (I got this from Flying Cheap documentary)

(Note: Mike Colgan was the President of Colgan at the time)

But they are not the only airline that pulls these shenanigans. My guess is that Colgan (Now under different management) thought they could get away with it.

Ya they bought the A/C units from Colgan Manassas Used Fords.... Cant get a better deal anywhere in Northen Virginia.

Tell em CC sent ya and we'll throw in a 10$ discount on a flight from CHO to LGA.

once again you open your mouth and show your ignorance. Colgan wasn't notified of the violation and continued to work the FA's. Colgan found out about the violation and damn near shut down the EWR Q400 operation for almost two days. Every inbound FA and those at home were brought to EWR for training on the new fire extinguisher before they could work again. Colgan didnt simply ignore the FAA. THat being said, the jackhole in the training depeartment who made this mistake still works here. She should have been bounced in 09, but hopefully this will help us clean house in the training department.

+1. Mesaba should just replace the training dept with their own guys/gals. Slowly, but surely....

Did you read the article or the press release from the FAA? They informed Colgan and Colgan continued to work the flight attendants instead of pulling them off line. Somebody found out and shut the operation down and forced the retraining which you are talking about. Colgan INITIALLY ignored the FAA and that is where the problem was. This is from multiple sources inside the FAA and one from Colgan.

You really think this is a +million dollar fine and Colgan didn't do anything wrong? might want to check your facts

This from a "Mighty" ExpressJet guy. Coooooome ooooooon maaaaan. You have enough problems in your own house, so stay out of ours. :rolleyes:

Two million? Ha! Put it on Pinnacle's tab!