Colgan 3407 crash...Chief Pilot Emails
 

Good thing there's a pilot shortage.

Otherwise airlines would start being picky about who they let upgrade.

Why did they decide to upgrade him if they didn't think he was ready? Did they just need pilots, any pilots to captain their planes?

You mean union would be picky about who they let upgrade.

its colgan, have you met chuck? No surprise at all.

Do you or have you ever worked for a regional? Here is the logic: If you are willing to work under the crappy rules and insulting pay, we will make sure that you stay employed as a pilot in what ever position your desire so long as your seniority can hold it. Even if you show every sign that you are clearly not pilot material and that you will probably kill people one day. We have insurance for that.

What regionals are afraid of is the artificial pilot shortage. There are less people willing to work for a regional than there are qualified pilots. There will always be people to fly jets. However people are starting to realize that regional airlines are a horrible stepping stone.

Well its a good thing Chuck is gone :D

So, he's not good enough to fly a Q400, but he is good enough to fly a Saab.......

Makes zero sense.

I believe the article stated the Q400 holds "about 50 people." I don't think any of the article makes sense. The whole idea of "letting him upgrade" is ridiculous. If he passes upgrade, he passes. If he fails he fails. This was just a case of someone slipping through the cracks. He got a lot of failures but not enough in a row to wash out. Unfortunately, there's pilots like these at every carrier.

It's just typical reporting, not really any clue what they're talking about. Facts and terminology are all wrong. He shouldn't have even been at the company by the time this happened, but he did pass the transition training, so he was "qualified". Not qualified, would mean that they just let a Saab captain walk up to the Q and start flying that instead.