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USA Today article on Regional Pilots

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Lear70

JAFFO
Joined
Oct 17, 2003
Posts
7,487
What I've been saying for a while... where there's smoke, there's fire.

1 case of multiple checkride failures in all the Major Airline accidents the last 10 years.

Regionals: in every single accident at least one of the crewmembers had multiple checkride failures except for one, and in that case, the F/O was terminated after it was discovered he lied on his job application in the first place.

They especially bashed Pinnacle, citing the Jefferson City crashes' Captain - 7 checkride failures before he was hired basically as a street Captain on the CRJ, plus the multiple other crashes in the last 5 years. One common thread: almost all of them had a low-time crew and/or GIA pilots.

You get what you pay for, and the system is going to be short of experienced talent in the right seat as long as the only people who will take the jobs are extremely low-time, low-experience, or sub-standard (multiple checkride failure) pilots.

Now the big question is: what are they going to do about it and will it have any kind of trickle-up effect on the majors? Will there be a push to incorporate the regionals back into the majors? Will there be a push to incorporate some type of higher standards for all Part 121 pilots?

Or will it all get swept under the rug next month?
 
I agree the talent pool has been shallow recently. Do you think there are other contributing factors such as the difference in duty and rest between the majors and regionals? There arent many mainline guys that do 6 leg 15 hr duty days combined with two reduced rests on a four day.
 
I'd like to try "Rugs" for $500 Alex.


Do you have a link to the article?

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2009-06-07-regional-pilots_N.htm

Pilots in crashes had failed multiple tests


By Alan Levin, USA TODAY

In nearly every serious regional airline accident during the past 10 years, at least one of the pilots had failed tests of his or her skills multiple times, according to an analysis of federal accident records.

In eight of the nine accidents during that time, which killed 137 people, pilots had a history of failing two or more "check rides," tests by federal or airline inspectors of pilots' ability to fly and respond to emergencies. In the lone case in which pilots didn't have multiple failures since becoming licensed, the co-pilot was fired after the non-fatal crash for falsifying his job application.

Pilots on major airlines and large cargo haulers had failed the tests more than once in only one of the 10 serious accidents in this country over the past 10 years, according to a USA TODAY review of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports.

At a time when fatal aviation accidents have become increasingly rare, regional carriers have had four since 2004, compared with one by a major airline. Regional airlines fly roughly half of all airline flights, carrying about 20% of passengers.

Pilot qualifications on regional carriers was at the center of an NTSB hearing last month into the February crash of a turboprop near Buffalo that killed 50 people. The pilot at the controls when the plane plunged had failed five checks, according to records revealed at the hearing.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: National Transportation Safety Board | Pinnacle Airlines | Colgan Air

Three of the accidents in which pilots had repeatedly failed tests involved a single airline conglomerate, Pinnacle Airlines. The crash near Buffalo was on Colgan Air, which is owned by Pinnacle. The captain on a Pinnacle jet that crashed in 2004 after accidentally killing both engines had failed seven checks.

Pinnacle spokesman Joe Williams said the airline was not aware of all the test failures.

"I'd say this is a symptom of a larger problem in selection and certification" of pilots, said Bill Voss, president of the independent Flight Safety Foundation. A shortage of pilots this decade, prompted in part by the lower numbers of former military pilots seeking airline jobs, prompted lower minimum qualifications, Voss said.

Failing a single check during a career means little, but failing multiple times "really sends up the red flags," said Patrick Veillette, a corporate jet pilot who has written extensively on safety issues.

Regional Airline Association President Roger Cohen defended the industry's safety practices. "All of our members are flying under the exact same standards as the mainline carriers," Cohen said.

The NTSB has voiced concern about a loophole in a law requiring airlines to check pilots' records when hiring. The 1996 Pilot Records Improvement Act orders airlines to check pilot records from previous employers, but that does not cover failures that occurred while a pilot was in flight school.

Airline pilots receive dozens of written and flying tests during a career.
 
Pilots on major airlines and large cargo haulers had failed the tests more than once in only one of the 10 serious accidents in this country over the past 10 years, according to a USA TODAY review of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports.

So...this means 90% of the accidents by majors/cargo have had pilots with better records?
 
What I've been saying for a while... where there's smoke, there's fire.

1 case of multiple checkride failures in all the Major Airline accidents the last 10 years.

Regionals: in every single accident at least one of the crewmembers had multiple checkride failures except for one, and in that case, the F/O was terminated after it was discovered he lied on his job application in the first place.

They especially bashed Pinnacle, citing the Jefferson City crashes' Captain - 7 checkride failures before he was hired basically as a street Captain on the CRJ, plus the multiple other crashes in the last 5 years. One common thread: almost all of them had a low-time crew and/or GIA pilots.

You get what you pay for, and the system is going to be short of experienced talent in the right seat as long as the only people who will take the jobs are extremely low-time, low-experience, or sub-standard (multiple checkride failure) pilots.

Now the big question is: what are they going to do about it and will it have any kind of trickle-up effect on the majors? Will there be a push to incorporate the regionals back into the majors? Will there be a push to incorporate some type of higher standards for all Part 121 pilots?

Or will it all get swept under the rug next month?

About half way down the article it makes the point that nine of the fatal accidents at the majors involved pilots without multiple checkride failures. With that logic you have a nine-times greater risk of an accident if you have not busted a checkride. There are more factors involved than checkride history.

The other factors that are involved in most of these cases is the lack of discipline, professionalism, and past history of problems in general, that these pilots exhibit. Also a factor is the way the regionals hire, pay, schedule and work their crews. These are far greater risks and the airlines will use the less relavent issues to distract the FAA, law makers, public, AND EVEN US from the greater issues.

Let's be careful about whose band wagon we're getting on!
 
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About half way down the article it makes the point that nine of the fatal accidents at the majors involved pilots without multiple checkride failures. With that logic you have a nine-times greater risk of an accident if you have not busted a checkride. There are more factors involved than checkride history.

The other factors that are involved in most of these cases is the lack of discipline, professionalism, and past history of problems in general, that these pilots exhibit. Also a factor is the way the regionals hire, pay, schedule and work their crews. These are far greater risks and the airlines will use the less relavent issues to distract the FAA, law makers, public, AND EVEN US from the greater issues.

Let's be careful about whose band wagon we're getting on!


AMEN, I like how people jump on that bandwagon without looking were their going, you are absolutely right. Many of the major airline disasters in the U.S. alone involved flightcrews that never failed a checkride. I forgot to mention that they did fail that last checkride when they crashed.
 
About half way down the article it makes the point that nine of the fatal accidents at the majors involved pilots without multiple checkride failures. With that logic you have a nine-times greater risk of an accident if you have not busted a checkride...

Umm...no. What that statistic indicates is that there are far more pilots that have not busted check rides than have. You would have to correlate that stat with the accident stat to derive the chances of one group over another having an accident. Might be interresting to see the results of that.

That having been said, I have flown sim checks with pilots that have been marginal, but later on seen them do a great job flying the line.

Clear as mud that issue is.
 
Pilots on major airlines and large cargo haulers had failed the tests more than once in only one of the 10 serious accidents in this country over the past 10 years, according to a USA TODAY review of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident reports.

This means that of the other nine, there could have been pilots that had failed at least one checkride, but not more than one, in each accident.

Be careful how statistics are analyzed and how they are reported. Not necessarily the same. Not to mention, how many checkrides were failed during primary training at a flight school vs. how many were failed at the airlines.' This was not accurately reflected. Just bad journalism really.
 

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