Terminations at Flight Options

[Phoenix]

The Rest Of The Story

As luck would have it, I witnessed this unfold. I was riding in the Atlantic van when the fired pilot was picked up from his hotel. He was pretty pissed off at the time, and for good reason. Here is what happened (according to him):

1. They were assigned a duty-on period of 1000 local at the FBO for a 1330 trip.
2. The captain said that they discussed it between them and decided to go out around 1200 because the plane was already fueled and ready. They could be airborne shortly if they had too.
3. Just after 1000, dispatch called and assigned them a recovery trip. He then tried to get ahold of his copilot (who was actually another captain), but was unable to. He called his room, called his cell, went to his room, etc.
4. The captain went out to the airport to get the plane ready. The ended up leaving around 1330 on their original trip.

The captain was definitely not for the union. He referred to the other captain as "one of these hard-core union guys who won't answer his phone" and complained about the practice because we "are a charter outfit, not an airline."

At Options, we are not required to answer our phone before the duty-on period, and a majority of us do not. This, according to scheduling, is why they put us on duty at the FBO. They were supposed to be on duty at the FBO and were not.

Most of this is accurate but there are a couple of other facts that have been missed.

This all happened on the change form Daylight Savings Time. The PIC miscalculated the correct duty on time and extrapolated 1100 local from the duty on time given in Zulu. It actually was a 1000 duty on as stated above.

Now the sequence of event that lead to the problem is as follows

Duty on time as sent by OCC 1000 local duty on.
First scheduled flight was 1330 local
PIC miscalculates duty on time as 1100 local.
PIC, without approval changes hotel departure time to 1200 local
OCC calls PIC at 0930 local with recovery trip
PIC answers phone and accepts flight without contacting SIC
PIC is unable to contact SIC and proceeds to the airport.
SIC shows is in lobby of hotel at 1200 local to go to airport
SIC turns on phone and sees calls and emails from PIC
SIC proceeds to airport
SIC arrives at airport at 1230 local
OCC cancels recovery flight and reverts back to original schedule

What could have prevented the whole cluster****.

1. PIC accurately calculate duty on time
2. PIC not change without approval show time
3.PIC not answer his phone while in rest

Simple, had PIC just done as the union has asked all of our pilots to do none of this would have happened. While I do not think that this event in and of itself rose to the level of dismissal, there were other factors in the pilots history that came into play. Had we a grievance and System Board in place he would have retained his job. Until we are successful in our pursuit of a contract we are all at will employees.

I spoke to the SIC and he was not gloating or exhibiting any other despicable behavior regarding the entire incident. To the contrary, he was very sorry that this pilots had been asked to resign. Regardless of what "KSU" says this was not the fault of the SIC, he did exactly what he was expected and instructed to do.

Now You Know The Rest Of The Story.

 

[Ultra Grump]

Regardless of what "KSU" says this was not the fault of the SIC, he did exactly what he was expected and instructed to do.

Except for being contactable from the scheduled duty-on time of 1000L.

 

[Phoenix]

Except for being contactable from the scheduled duty-on time of 1000L.

What you missed was that the PIC had incorrectly told the SIC that the duty on time was 1100 local.

 

[Diesel]

Do SIC's not get their own brief on their pagers?

 

[FR8DOG777]

Do SIC's not get their own brief on their pagers?

Yes provided it isn't broken for the last 3 months. The turn around time for the piece of equipment that our company wants to rely solely on for communication is sub par.

 

[Ultra Grump]

What you missed was that the PIC had incorrectly told the SIC that the duty on time was 1100 local.

Actually, I didn't miss that. a) He has his own pager and brief, correct? b) That doesn't explain his being uncontactable at 1100L, does it? Why did he show up at the hotel lobby at 1200L and only then turn on his phone to see the calls and emails?

The SIC is not blameless in this.

 

[dime line]

But at the end of the day he was fired for this. I remember a couple of Legacy Pilots taxing into another Legacy (about 5ft of wing into the tail of the other one), and 10million later for a new wing, PIC busted to Sic for a while and poof still here.

So the crime doesnt fit the punishment

 

[Rubber Ducky]

crew rot firing

Now that they've fired one of us for not showing up at the fbo for our punishment crew rot stby at fbo duty, I guess they'll have to fire the other 730 of us.

 

[ToTheStars]

The OCC should not be able to put a trip on an aircraft until both the PIC & SIC accept the trip.

Two green lights. If they haven't been accepted by both pilots, the OCC should call the pilot that has not accepted the trip.

It's about time the OCC used the system correctly and quit putting the burden of hunting down the SIC on the PIC.

Now with all that said, the program managers don't can a good pilot for one such event. At least the good ones don't. Usually there is a pattern of bad behavior.

 

[XShipRider]

But at the end of the day he was fired for this. I remember a couple of Legacy Pilots taxing into another Legacy (about 5ft of wing into the tail of the other one), and 10million later for a new wing, PIC busted to Sic for a while and poof still here.

So the crime doesnt fit the punishment

It was a female. FLOPs probably didn't want the wrongful term' suit brought
by a female. Bad publicity and all that rot.

This event happened shortly after my impromptu departure from FLOPs.
There was talk then that she must have had pic's of exec's with small
farm animals*.

*Posted for humorous intent only. No reference to persons living or dead intended. No
animals were harmed in the creation of this post.