There is no monpoly on stupidtiy, complancency, lack of professionalism or negligance at any level of aviation. I have been involved in military and commercial aviation since 1979 and can say this with all sincerity and accuracy. The events of USAir on the Hudson and CJC 3407 in Buffalo are linked because of the timing of both events falling so close together.
Aviation is full of stories that are both equally as tragic as they are heroic. As a professional aviator I have a high amount of respect for the USAir crew. I do however, take some exception to their remarks on the level of proficiency at the regional airline level. If they had first-hand knowledge of the "dirty-little-secret" that is "single-level-of-safety", why did they wait until February 12, 2009 to speak out?
How can the FAA, ICAO, DoT and all the other agencies invloved with airline safety have not recognized that there was a problem with crew training, proficiency, hiring practices, etc...? Simply because of the financial pressures within the airline industry to maintain the status quo (cost vs. benefit analysis). The pilots of the so-called "majors" have thrown everyone else under the bus for their own self-serving reasons and will continue to do so. Doesn't make any of them bad people, it is just the reality of working in a highly competitive industry that has very few opportunities to advance into the higher paying positions.
I am at a loss as to how to solve the daunting problems facing the airline profession. It simply isn't the profession that it once was, and perhaps the "golden age" of aviaiton has long passed me by. I will say that there are a number of damned good "regional" airline pilots out there that can fly the heck out of an airplane, are very professional and deserve SO MUCH more from there "major" airline "brothers and sisters.
Rant complete...
I agree- stupid pilot tricks occur at every carrier and every experience level.
The CJC and USair events did come at a very appropriate time to highlight the severe cuts and race to the lowest common denominator which has been occuring in this decade.
The dirty little secret certainly is there- ASA and the higher end regionals are exceptions to this, but the likes of Pinnacle, Colgan, Mesa... you name it, and there is one primary goal in that operation: train to check off the boxes and hopefully we havent cut enough corners to where someone dies.
The race to the bottom on pay and continual downpressure from outsourcing taken to the extreme is terrible and highly detrimental to safety...which will continue to rear it's ugly head.
I'm honestly surprised we don't have more pilots signing in drunk after all the cuts this decade.
The question is- where to we start? How do we begin reeling in the bottom? The 1500 hour rule does have an effect on experience (think about how much of a better pilot you were from 500 hours to 1500 hours, even just grinding it out as a CFI)- but it has more of an effect on supply. Reduced supply....well, you know.
There are many other steps that need to be taken- the mainline carriers need to reel in their outsourcing, and the mainline unions need to grow a pair of brass clangers and put the pressure on.
It's going to be a very long process getting the camel out of the tent.
Stupid pilot tricks will always happen- the key is keeping the frequency to a bare minimum and trying to ensure that they are of a benign nature.
As I said earlier, due to all the cuts- the only real training breakthroughs this decade have been learning how to check off the fewest boxes possible with the least amount of bent metal possible. That trend has to be reversed.
