I've flown for a great 135 operator and the article is rings true from the things that I've seen.

The crew said they were fine to fly the leg from LIT - TOL. They fueled, got some coffee, and a pizza there from Supermarine. Do they still do that down there? Also, you have to have a crew that would work with you. We ended up giving that crew two days off for the hard work. It's not like I didn't reward them for helping us out in a jam. We needed the plane back in TOL for a trip. We had one Falcon up north at the time and it was having gear problems and MX didn't want to stay late and fix it.

And it's not like I did it religiously...I can only count on one hand how many times I've done it.

Ok agreed, but you would think someone would catch it by running his info, Hell you'll appreciate this, back 20 years ago when I was in Bootcamp, we had a guy get pulled out of company, on the second week seems a cocaine conviction caught up with him, keep in mind this was in the 80's, with antiquated computers so if they could catch it then, makes me wonder... There had to be a background there, so I'm guessing someone at the FAA realy dropped the ball on that guy..

I do appreciate it - and it depends on who is doing the checking I guess. I mean how often do we hear on the news that some sex offender is working in the cafeteria at an Elementary School, and those people are suppose to be tracked darn near 100% of the time! There are definitely loopholes in the system that someone with savy can exploit

USMCFLYR

Grand Aire is a perfect example of this

I've worked for a 135 company and it was pretty shady at times, but some of the things in the article seemed to not have been researched thorougly. The heli company arranging a fixed wing charter for instance. The word arranging is pretty vague, and it could mean any number of things. Hell, I could "arrange" a fixed wing charter, by picking up the phone and calling a 135 fixed wing company myself.

It is my dream to fly for, or start a small 135 company at some point in the future and I really hope this article doesn't screw things up.

Don't worry articles like this are published several times a year. No one takes USA Today seriously anyways.

Funny you mentioned them...

Agreed, it definatly does happen unfortunately......I was just suprised that someone with that background could slip through all the way to CP. But what you say puts it in perspective, if it can happen there it can happen here.

I once worked for a 135 with a DO who was a drug runner who didn't get caught. His accomplice did, went to prison, but never ratted on the DO. That's all in the past, and everyone involved is now dead, but there are probably a few out there who still operate like they're part of the wild west. Unfortunately, decent, legitimate 135s have to compete with that every time they bid for a trip. And we all think its bad when regional airlines get whipsawed against each other every five years! 135s do it every day.

I considered the article to be as shallow as a bird bath, but the premise was valid.