NY times article about Comair

[Soverytired]

I applaud this captain for trying to complete the mission without a working air conditioner. I wish more of our ASA pilots would follow suit and stop refusing airplanes for silly mechanical problems like this.

Hah! My thoughts exactly. A CRJ w/o a working APU in the summertime is a ticking time bomb. Hot dosen't even begin to describe it.

30 minute taxi time, max. Then a gate return. And the second someone throws up (if not sooner), it's time to declare a medical emergency and get some priority handling. I'd even deplane on the ramp in another 5 minutes if they didn't get me a gate.

I can't believe the Comair guys don't know this. Not to rag on them, I wasn't there, but Jesus Christ. Passenger Safety 101. (and Pilot Certificate 101 too . . . you know, "careless and reckless operation")

 

[RJAA]

What they won't report is that Delta forces the feeders to operate this way. Delta will always defer comment to the feeder in question as to portray they have nothing to do with the situation. Poor management, low operating budgets, an unmotivated, undertrained and underexperienced workforce coupled with copmletion factor goals add up to an unsafe and uncomfortable environment in which we work.

It's exactly right. They advertise and market the Comair flights as Delta connection flights which feeds Delta's JFK hub. And then something goes wrong, they would say to the media, "well, this flight is operated by Comair, not Delta" I've also felt that Delta also made an effort like this during the LEX crash.

 

[flyslow24]

This brings up the issue of the passengers "bill of rights" from the Jetblue deal..


Instead of coming up with a "bill of rights" for the pax why don't they spend time on updating the air traffic control system.

 

[NEDude]

From now on maybe we should refuse to fly an airplane that has deferred items such as an apu or ac packs. Too hot.

Last summer we picked up an airplane that had been sitting on the DCA ramp for nearly four hours in the sun with temps hovering around 95 degrees. Guess what, APU was busted. Captain requested a different airplane. None available, we had to take that airplane. The captain simply said that the only way he was going to take the airplane is if we could start up, taxi out and run the engines up for a while to power the packs and cool it off, then board with one engine running and spooled up a little to keep air flowing. Guess what, they said if that is what it takes to get the flight out, we could do it. So we gassed up with a bunch of extra fuel, taxied out to the approach end of 33, and ran the engines up at about 65% N1 for 45 minutes. Got the airplane cooled down and then went and boarded up with the engine running and were on our way. Got paid extra for it as well.

Put your foot down and exercise your authority a bit.

 

[TurboAWD]

We weren't there, so we don't know exactly what was going on.

However, for future reference, I think we all know a CRJ200 w/o APU in the summer is a disaster waiting to happen. If you don't think you will be off the ground promptly, don't board. If you are stopped while taxing, run the N1's up above 40%. And if you have too, declare an emergency, taxi somewhere, open your door, and let the pax off. Then thank ALPA for helping you keep your job (if your company is stupid enough not to realize you did the right thing).

Turbo