81Horse said:
All of which may well be factual, Whistlin' Dan. I don't know; I'm not privy to FedEx personnel information.
But I am still asking the posters above to cite some statistics that prove the distribution of incompetence across the pilot population is not random.
People here are implying a higher incidence of incompetence among women pilots than among men. Because anecdotes take on a life of their own ("I've got a friend at ABC and he says somebody told him that some chick there yada yada yada.") and magnify each actual occurence, I remain unconvinced.
And I knew it was only a matter of time before someone here brought up Calloway. Um, yeah; women pilots are just like suicidal, homicidal maniacs. I'm starting to think a lot of people here have had nasty divorces.
Please! Leave my smoldering, stinking, pus-hole of a divorce out of this discussion!
I don't have access to FedEx personal data either, nor did I know any of the parties involved. I got my information on FE 647 from the NTSB report, and on 705 from Hirschman's book. I left out "what I heard from a friend of a friend" regarding Navy Lt. Kara Hultgren because it's hearsay, and I left out what I knew about the work history of the female Controller at LAX (the one who merged US Air and SkyWest on 24L) because I didn't have the info in front of me. I'm really not out to dawg women, honest! It's the
system that puts such an emphasis on hiring people based on factors other than their job skills that could benefit from some review, that's all.
I work with a number of female aircrew members, and they're generally excellent pilots and good people to be around.
I'm a better guy to be around when women are on the flight deck. But I've also seen a few females that didn't work out. Two were clearly hired before they were "ready"...I.E., directly out of GenAv piston A/C and into turbojet airline cockpits. I tried to bring both up to speed (sometimes on my personal time) but couldn't, at least not in the time allotted. In my estimation, both got a raw deal by being hired without the turbine PIC experience that is typically required of our male pilot-applicants.
Another came to us with a rather extensive history of training difficulties and EEOC complaints against her former employer, a Legacy Carrier. I flew with her one time. Had our jumpseater not initiated,
on his own, a corrective action on her panel, we would have likely been faced with making a diversion. She didn't last long at our company,
or at the one she went to after she left here. At least, that's what I
heard...:laugh:
I'm not prepared to say that the "distribution of accidents across the pilot population is not random." However, I could say with some conviction that at
some companies, the desire to maintain a "politically correct and culturally diverse" workplace has led management to take extraordinary measures to hire, train, and standardize certain employees.
Sometimes, that costs them big bucks.
I would further submit that any company who "carries" such employees taints the legitimate accomplishments of those crewmembers who
don't require extra training and special dispensation throughout their careers. It pi$$es
them off to be lumped in with the others simply by virtue of their common gender.
Back to
you, Jane...