Plus, what is standard practice? Sometimes that is an indicator of accepted safety. What do other airlines do on international redeyes, especially over the ocean. I'm sure the media would be all over CAL if they only knew that they use just two pilots when industry standard and practice is likely 3 pilots at all other airlines. Redeye international is a different animal. Just ask the pax on the Europe-EWR flight whose CA dropped dead over the Atlantic or the families of the Air France that disappeared (not than an extra pilot would have helped, but it shows that unexpected stuff happens out there and you wouldn't want to face some of it with just two pilots).
Saying the FAA doesn't require it is like the Colgan spokesman after the Buffalo accident saying "the FAA doesn't require upset training so we don't do it." Reporter should have come right back with "What I hear you saying is that Colgan does the absolutely minimum the FAA requires, and no more. So, there is nothing Colgan does beyond the FAA minimum?" When the Colgan spokesman would say "Well, that's not true. We do exceed FAA minimum standards in many areas." Reporter could say, "then why didn't you exceed FAA standards for upset training? Might have saved 49 lives."
If CAL uses 3 pilots for scheduling international redeyes, then they should use 3 pilots for flying international redeyes.
The larger issue though is that CAL cuts a lot of things very close to the bone. Contracts written by airline pilots for airline pilots add the extra safety margin above the FAA minimum because the pilots live the rules and know what is needed over the long haul. Not having a union for many years at CAL largely gutted the work rules to the FAA minimums, and even those sometimes have to be contested and fought over. It is a long road back to get these work rules back in place and enforced.
