Regionals Airline Safety

[Way2Broke]

I am writing a research paper on the safety record of Regional Airlines, a segment of the industry I do not have much experience with from an employee prospective and would like to know if any of the pilots here could point me to some sites with statistics that argue for and against Regional Airlines being as safe as Major Airlines. I am finding lots of opinions out there, but not much for actual number crunching and statistics. Thanks for the help.

 

[Jar Jar]

use Roger Cohen as a source, just to remain unbiased.

 

[SpaceShipEarth]

Get on Netflix and find Flying Cheap.

 

[IBNAV8R]

Good luck finding anything on the topic without bias or opinion.

I would check NTSB accident database and and NASA ASRS - both should provide more objective data.

 

[cynic]

Regional airlines are more dangerous because of the quality of the pilots. Most of them did not come from the military and the ones that did flew helicopters so they are the less skilled military pilots.

All Embry Riddle grads go right to the major airlines and that also contributes to better safety.

I know for a fact that a major airline pilot is between 65% and 75% safer than a pilot working for the regional airlines.

Almost all airline crashes occur as a result of regional airline pilots. In fact the exact number is 89%.

Does that help?

 

[ackattacker]

Safety statistics are hard to come by because the number of airline crashes in the US is so low as to be statistically almost meaningless.

That said, if you want real facts and honest scientific discussion peruse the publications of the Flight Safety Foundation.

 

[Theoden]

Regional airlines are more dangerous because of the quality of the pilots. Most of them did not come from the military and the ones that did flew helicopters so they are the less skilled military pilots.

All Embry Riddle grads go right to the major airlines and that also contributes to better safety.

I know for a fact that a major airline pilot is between 65% and 75% safer than a pilot working for the regional airlines.

Almost all airline crashes occur as a result of regional airline pilots. In fact the exact number is 89%.

Does that help?

Militay pilots are not necesarrily more or less safe as airlines pilots. Fed Ex had one of the most deplorable safety records among 121 carriers and they are almost entirely military. Certainly in recent US history the last few fatal accidents have been regionals like Colgan's unsucsessfull stall recovery and Comair's wrong runway takeoff. As someone else said, the numbers are so tiny as to be statistically significant. DL landed on a taxiway not too long ago, but no injuries so it doesn't count. At the regionals you do have less experienced pilots since that is the entry level and for the captains it may be their first time being a captain. We have to be carefull about what we are measuring when we examine stats. Do regionals operate the same kinds of flights, destinations, schedules and aircraft as mainline?

 

[Fubijaakr]

I certainly hope you forgot the "sarcasm" tag.

Most of them did not come from the military and the ones that did flew helicopters so they are the less skilled military pilots.

Wrong. At least in the Navy, assignment to patrol, helicopter or jet pipelines was entirely dependent on the needs of the service on the WEEK you graduate from primary flight training. Granted there was a preferred minimum overall grade for TACAIR training, but if its all there was available a particular week, EVERYONE got jets. Likewise, if only Helos were available, everyone got Helos regardless of grades.

The week I graduated there were 5 patrol slots and one helo slot. Since I was the only unmarried graduate and the fiscal year moving funds dried up, it was cheaper to assign me to helos, even though my primary grades were the best in my class. "Needs of the Navy" is the detailer's favorite line.

All Embry Riddle grads go right to the major airlines and that also contributes to better safety.

Wrong again. Now I know you're just pulling this poor guy's leg.

I know for a fact that a major airline pilot is between 65% and 75% safer than a pilot working for the regional airlines.

Almost all airline crashes occur as a result of regional airline pilots. In fact the exact number is 89%.

80% of all statistics are made up.

 

[Fubijaakr]

Militay pilots are not necesarrily more or less safe as airlines pilots. Fed Ex has the most deplorable safety record among 121 carriers and they are almost entirely military.

Fixed it for you. I sat next to the CASC for FedEx at a meeting a couple years ago. He said he's been involved in NTSB accident investigations CONTINUOUSLY for the last decade.

 

[ackattacker]

To the OP, as you can see this board is full of trolls and morons who argue with trolls.

Good luck with your paper, this is not the place to do your research.