FO Jeff Skiles on Charlie Rose Tonight

[FlyingSig]

Anyone catch Sully's reponse when Letterman asked him what the meaning of Cactus was? It was interesting....

I'm curious if Sully is former AWA. Anyone know?

I caught that too.... "Many airlines use the company name as a callsign... we use a different word"

...if that wasn't a dig on AWA, I don't know what was.

 

[glasspilot1]

Seems like I read somewhere that he was Piedmont or PSA (the real ones, not the commuter knock offs).

He was hired in 1980 at PSA.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

He was hired in 1980 at PSA.

You guys still recall the PSA crash with the disgruntled male FA?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSA_Flight_1771

David Burke (born May 18, 1952) was a former employee of USAir, the airline that had recently purchased, and was in the process of absorbing, Pacific Southwest Airlines (PSA). Burke had been terminated by USAir for petty theft of $69 from in-flight cocktail receipts and, after meeting with his supervisor in an unsuccessful attempt to be reinstated, he purchased a ticket on Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771, a daily flight from Los Angeles, California to San Francisco. Burke's supervisor, Raymond F. Thomson, took the flight regularly because he lived in San Francisco but worked at Los Angeles International Airport.[2]

Using his USAir credentials, Burke, armed with a loaded .44 Magnum revolver[3] that he had borrowed from a co-worker, was able to bypass the security checkpoint at Los Angeles International Airport. After boarding the plane, Burke wrote a message on an air-sickness bag. The note read:

Hi Ray. I think it's sort of ironical that we ended up like this. I asked for some leniency for my family. Remember? Well, I got none and you'll get none.[4]

As the plane, a four engine British Aerospace BAe 146-200, cruised at 22,000 feet (6700 m) over the central California coast, the cockpit voice recorder recorded the sound of two shots being fired in the cabin. The cockpit door was opened and a female, presumed to be a flight attendant, told the cockpit crew "We have a problem". The captain replied, "What kind of problem?" Burke then announced "I'm the problem", then fired three more shots that incapacitated the pilots.

Several seconds later, the cockpit voice recorder picked up increasing windscreen noise as the airplane pitched down and began to accelerate. A final gunshot was heard and it is speculated that Burke shot himself. The plane then descended and crashed into the hillside of a cattle ranch at 4:16 p.m. in the Santa Lucia Mountains near Paso Robles[5] and Cayucos. The plane was estimated to have crashed nose first at a speed of around 700 MPH, disintegrating into thousands of pieces. The force of the impact meant that 27 passengers were never identified.

It was determined several days later by the FBI (after the discovery of both the handgun containing six spent bullet casings and the note written on the air-sickness bag) that Burke was the person responsible for the crash. FBI investigators were also able to lift a print from a fragment of finger sandwiched in the pistol's trigger guard, which positively identified Burke. In addition to the evidence uncovered at the crash site, other factors surfaced: Burke's co-worker admitted to having lent him the gun, and Burke had also left a farewell message on his girlfriend's telephone answering machine.

Previously, Burke had worked for an airline in Rochester, New York, where he was a suspect in a drug-smuggling ring that was bringing cocaine from Jamaica to Rochester via the airline. He was never officially charged. [6]

 

[samballs]

Maybe its just me, but Skiles seemed not to agree with the Hudson being the only choice?

 

[LR25]

FO? I thought USAir 320's were single pilot. I'm really behind the curve.

 

[Amish RakeFight]

So uhh... no one else thought Skiles had a better sense ofhumor than did Sully on Letterman?

Someone back me up.

 

[glasspilot1]

>> You guys still recall the PSA crash with the disgruntled male FA? <<

This was the accident that caused all crew members to have to go through security just like the passengers. I was at Comair in CVG at the time and BOY WERE WE PISSED AT THIS JERK!

 

[JCJ]

Maybe its just me, but Skiles seemed not to agree with the Hudson being the only choice?

I thought he was fine & they all came across very well. Except for the aft FA.

 

[CaptJax]

FO In Hudson River Crash Returning To Air

Co-pilot in Hudson River crash returning to air


By OSKAR GARCIA, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, March 4, 2009



(03-04) 18:12 PST LAS VEGAS (AP) --


The co-pilot aboard the plane that made a splash landing in New York's Hudson River said Wednesday that he'll take some simulated flights to reacquaint himself with flying before returning to the air by the end of the month.




First officer Jeffrey Skiles, 49, said he expected to fly until retirement at age 65 because he sees "no future in being a long-term celebrity."
Skiles was part of the five-member crew on the Airbus A320 that ditched in the river with all 155 people aboard surviving. The plane's captain, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, glided the US Airways plane into the river when a flock of geese disabled both engines just minutes after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport.
Skiles, from Oregon, Wis., was awarded a trophy Wednesday at an air traffic controllers' union meeting.
The National Air Traffic Controllers Association also honored Sullenberger, air traffic controllers Patrick Harten and Bill McLoughlin, and the plane's flight attendants.
"People want to relate it and say it's luck, divine intervention or heroism, but my thought was everybody was just doing their jobs," Skiles said.
He said he expects to work four to five days per week when he returns. He said simulated flights were normal for pilots who have taken breaks from flying, even those coming back from vacations.
Skiles also said he had trouble sleeping immediately after the incident but was OK now.
"When you normally have an incident, you have post-traumatic shock symptoms and I did myself for the first week, week and a half," he said. "I got over it pretty fast."
Sullenberger has not said when he will return to flying, but wrote in a first-person Newsweek essay that he thought he would be ready in a few months.

 

[Morning Wood]

In college, we played it with "Goodfellas"...for every "F..."

We did the same thing only to "Scarface". Talk about impossible to keep up.

 

[Morning Wood]

You guys still recall the PSA crash with the disgruntled male FA?

I didn't think he was a F/A. I thought he was a CS Supervisor and had stolen the money F/A's had turned in at the end of their shift. Maybe I'm remembering something else.