PBS Front Line- Airline Safety System Broken

[SFR]

The video was fairly accurate. I can say that at the regional level the average skill level is less than at a major.

When I was at ASA I flew with and knew of pilots that should not have been there. More so there than at CAL.

When I was at ASA I could always divide the group into those pilots that will make it to a major and the ones that never will. When the majors start hiring it removes all of the good ones and leaves the regionals with the red headed step children (so to speak).

Have you ever looked in the terminal during a sit and realize how dorky a lot of regional pilots are....wonder why that is? It is like this in every business, not just aviation.

It is not wrong either, just life and the world needs to deal with it.


THE ONLY THING THAT WILL STOP THIS PROBLEM IS THE FLYING PUBLIC REFUSING TO BUY TICKETS ON THESE SO CALLED "UNSAFE AIRLINES"....... THAT IS THE ONLY THING....

 

[Rez O. Lewshun]

Are YOU defending the status quo? .

no, yet the problem cannot be solved if it is not understood.

 

[densoo]

When I was at ASA I could always divide the group into those pilots that will make it to a major and the ones that never will. When the majors start hiring it removes all of the good ones and leaves the regionals with the red headed step children (so to speak).

Have you ever looked in the terminal during a sit and realize how dorky a lot of regional pilots are....wonder why that is? It is like this in every business, not just aviation.

The Frontline was excellent except for one thing--that the majors are safe and the regionals are not. This is precisely what the majors, especially the contractor for Colgan, were hoping for. Just as they have legal immunity from unsafe practices at the regionals, they seem to have gotton a media perception immunity though this Frontline. Many regionals are safe. Some may be safer than some majors.

 

[Flying-Corporal]

I don't understand why ValueJet got dragged into this report as an unsafe airline. Didn't the investigation uncover that it wasn't pilot's error, nor it it was the airlines fault? Some contractors put O2 generators in the cargo bin that started the fire. Why didnt Miles OBrien mention the American Cali accident? Or American in Little Rock? Or American in Montego Bay recently? Or Continental and Delta landing on taxiways in EWR and ATL? Ahh, these are major airlines and they are safe unlike the rest.

 

[ImbracableCrunk]

I don't understand why ValueJet got dragged into this report as an unsafe airline. Didn't the investigation uncover that it wasn't pilot's error, nor it it was the airlines fault? Some contractors put O2 generators in the cargo bin that started the fire. Why didnt Miles OBrien mention the American Cali accident? Or American in Little Rock? Or American in Montego Bay recently? Or Continental and Delta landing on taxiways in EWR and ATL? Ahh, these are major airlines and they are safe unlike the rest.

I think Miles was talking about airlines with rapid expansion.

 

[jonjuan]

I don't understand why ValueJet got dragged into this report as an unsafe airline. Didn't the investigation uncover that it wasn't pilot's error, nor it it was the airlines fault? Some contractors put O2 generators in the cargo bin that started the fire. Why didnt Miles OBrien mention the American Cali accident? Or American in Little Rock? Or American in Montego Bay recently? Or Continental and Delta landing on taxiways in EWR and ATL? Ahh, these are major airlines and they are safe unlike the rest.

http://articles.latimes.com/1996-06-26/news/mn-18681_1_valujet-crash

Agency Too Slow to Act on ValuJet, FAA Chief Says

June 26, 1996|ART PINE, TIMES STAFF WRITER
WASHINGTON — The head of the Federal Aviation Administration conceded Tuesday that his agency acted too slowly in cracking down on ValuJet's aircraft maintenance problems but he said that those shortcomings had nothing to do with the May 11 accident that killed 110 persons.
Testifying before a House Transportation subcommittee, FAA Administrator David Hinson said that, as late as a year ago when ValuJet began to grow rapidly, the agency "could have done a better job" in slowing that growth to a more manageable pace.

The FAA administrator, who has headed the agency since 1993, also told the panel that he intends to leave the post by the end of the year. He said he made that commitment to President Clinton when he was appointed.
His testimony was delivered in a jampacked hearing room. Other government regulators and agency officials also testified, assailing the FAA.
Jim Hall, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates aircraft accidents, cited several cases of poor FAA supervision over the last decade and said the agency has repeatedly ignored NTSB warnings over the years about safety problems it should have resolved.
The agency's moves to tighten maintenance rules for carriers such as ValuJet since the May 11 crash shows that "we don't have a ValuJet problem here, we have an FAA problem," Hall said.
Hinson insisted during his testimony, however, that "there is no apparent relationship" between the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 into the Florida Everglades six weeks ago and "any issues of compliance at ValuJet."
As he has virtually since the ValuJet crash, Hinson attributed the accident to a fire most likely fueled by oxygen generators that were mislabeled and put on the plane without proper packing.
In other testimony, Mary F. Schiavo, inspector general of the Transportation Department, cited a list of instances in which the FAA had moved too slowly to correct a problem. She called ValuJet "a microcosm for the problems that we have uncovered at the FAA."
Schiavo also said the relationship between the airline and the FAA was the subject of a criminal investigation but she declined to provide details about the inquiry or who was conducting it. Reports of the investigation had surfaced before but had not been confirmed.
Republicans and Democrats on the panel sparred over reports that the White House had sought to influence the FAA decision on whether to ground ValuJet after the May crash. ValuJet agreed last week to cease operations temporarily after the FAA threatened to ground it formally.



Hinson and several FAA and Transportation Department aides testified, however, that they already had made their decision to ground the airline--or at least to force it to stop operating--before a June 17 White House meeting called to review the agency's action.
Hinson also drew fire from lawmakers in both parties for remarks that he and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena made just after the ValuJet crash assuring the public that the airline still was safe.

 

[Flying-Corporal]

That's exactly my point, the 'poor' FAA supervision did not lead to the accident. Why compare to Buffalo crash then?

 

[ImbracableCrunk]

That's exactly my point, the 'poor' FAA supervision did not lead to the accident. Why compare to Buffalo crash then?

I think they're saying that Colgan was caused in part by poor oversight and that poor oversight has a history among fast growing airlines.

 

[CRJDawg]

Mr. Cohen of the RAA is delusional and made a fool of himself when he stated that a pilot making 18K a year can live responsibly in this environment. He probably spends that much in that tanning bed he cooks himself in.

What a scumbag!

 

[slaquer5]

Mr. Cohen of the RAA is delusional and made a fool of himself when he stated that a pilot making 18K a year can live responsibly in this environment. He probably spends that much in that tanning bed he cooks himself in.

What a scumbag!

LMAO Brother that is the truth, He looks the poster child for used car salesman of the year.