June 9, 2009
Airlines Hiring "Very Substandard" Pilots
Flight 1549 Co-Pilot Says Industry Forced To Accept Minimum FAA Qualification Levels
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Play CBS Video Video Safety Reality Of Flying Debris from the Air France crash site offers clues, reports Nancy Cordes. Capt. "Sully" Sullenberger's co-pilot, Jeff Skiles, speaks to Maggie Rodriguez on the safety of planes and pilots.
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Video Pilot Training In Question As the NTSB examines the experience of the pilot who commanded doomed Flight 3407, focus has also been placed on the current training guidelines for commercial airline pilots. Ben Tracy reports.
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Video Colgan Buffalo Crash Detailed The NTSB will focus on pilot training for regional jets after the deadly Buffalo, N.Y. crash earlier this year, reports Nancy Cordes. Julie Chen speaks to former FAA official Michael Goldfarb.
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In the wake of criticism about the experience and training of pilots, U.S. officials said they plan to increase inspection of pilot training programs at regional airlines. (Bombardier)
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Interactive Industry Turbulence See how the country's top airlines are faring
The comments come on the heels of National Transportation Safety Board testimony last month which revealed that a series of critical errors by the captain and co-pilot preceded the crash of the twin engine turboprop on February 12, killing 50 people.
Critics are focusing their attention on pilot training and working conditions.
In a review of NTSB accident records, USA Today yesterday revealed that in most serious accidents over the past decade, pilots who had a history of failing skills and performance tests were at the controls.
Most of these accidents involved smaller regional airlines, which account for roughly half of all domestic flights.
"Well, the general pilot qualification level is certainly a concern for us in the industry right now," First Officer Jeff Skiles told Early Show anchor Maggie Rodriguez. "We've never really had to be hiring entry level pilots at the FAA minimums before.
"In the past it's been a very attractive career for people to join, and the airlines, even the regional airlines, have been able to select from a very qualified applicant pool. That's not happening any more, and we're having to hire down to the FAA minimums, which most pilots have always considered to be very substandard."
Skiles also confirmed the complaints of other pilots about working conditions. Many are forced to work grueling schedules with little sleep between shifts and low pay. Testimony at last month's NTSB hearing into the Buffalo crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 revealed that pilots can work as long as 16 hours straight, with as little as 4 or 5 hours of sleep, before getting back into the cockpit.
"That is true," Skiles said. "The current fatigue rest rules are less restrictive than truck drivers work under. Once you've been on duty for 13 hours, you are about 500 percent more likely to make an error, and once you've been on duty for 16 hours, you have the response rate of somebody who is legally drunk.
"This is a concern for all of us," he said, "and what we're trying to do is have Congress actually propose legislation to lower the flight duty regulations that we work under."
Skiles said that most pilots in the regional carrier industry are "very experienced and very qualified," but that having a skilled operator in the pilot's seat is on a case-by-case basis.
"There are cracks in the system," he told Rodriguez.
Testimony at the NTSB hearing on the crash indicated the flight's captain may not have had hands-on training on a critical cockpit safety system. The cockpit voice recorder showed the co-pilot describing her lack of experience flying in icy weather not long before the crash.
At a House hearing in February, Skiles noted that when he began at US Air, the company required several thousand hours of flying time just to gain an interview for a pilot job. "New pilots in the jet aircraft of our affiliate airlines have 300 hours," he said. "It is certainly in the interest of the traveling public to have experienced crews in the cockpit."
Skiles says that the FAA needs to raise the minimum requirements to what he calls "real world levels."
Skiles also testified that, because of the economic turmoil facing the airline industry over the last several years has hit pilots hard. his salary has been reduced in half, and he's lost his pension.
"Many pilots like Captain Sullenberger and myself have had to split their focus from the airline piloting profession and develop alternative businesses or careers," Skiles said. "I myself am a general contractor. For the last 6 years, I have worked 7 days a week between my two jobs just to maintain a middle class standard of living."
The result, Skiles testified, is that experienced pilots are leaving the industry for other, more lucrative career fields, and are being replaced with inexperienced pilots.
In response to the outcry about pilot qualifications, U.S. officials have said they plan to increase inspection of pilot training programs at regional airlines.
In a statement Tuesday Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt said they will also hold a summit meeting with the airline industry next week to seek better pilot training and other safety improvements.
Babbitt said it was clear from the crash of a regional airliner near Buffalo, New York, in February that safety needs to be improved.
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- Can't help but put the cynicism in. The new carrier pilots transport working people. The private jets transport the important people, like politicians and CEO's. Just who do you think is getting the best pilots? The fodder is expendable.
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- One of the conditions of NAFTA and theWTO was for 'international wage standards' for labor as the GOAL!
Google: 'airline pilots earn less then truck drivers and garbage truck operators'
And it doesn't matter if you fly a plane in the U.S. or Zimbabwe.
Thanks Reagan...for busting up unions...you were a good soldier for the globalists.
Posted by whitemale08
No, no, no- go to a website called "willflyforfood.com"- they list pilot pay scales from a multitude of airlines. Just one example: Working for American Airlines, the FIRST YEAR, a pilot earns $35.00/hour, with a guarantee of 64 hours a month, and after 12 years, earns anywhere from $157.00 to $199.00 per HOUR, depending on which aircraft they're flying. With the 64 hours per month guarantee, that's $10,048.00 to $12,736.00 PER MONTH. Show me a truck driver or garbage truck driver that makes that kind of money, especially for working 64 hours per month. Ain't happenin, dude! - Reply to this comment
- When I recently applied for a pilot's job, the interviewer told me that if I could drive a bicycle they could train me to be a pilot in 2 weeks. I was rejected because I never learned to drive a bicycle.
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- Aptitude, Training, Experience?.. in that order.
All three are needed to be a SAFE, SEASONED, pilot. Sadly the tragedy of 3407 will be repeated because in the aviation world the aptitude of the individual is not evaluated. Experience (according to Roger Cohen) does not matter.
Civilian pilot training focuses all its efforts in training. When an accident occurs?. more training. No one ever stops to ask: ?Should this individual be flying a commercial airliner? Does this person have enough experience?? The answer is always, fix the training. Add more training.
News flash: The training is fine. It doesn?t need to be fixed. The pilots need to be evaluated for aptitude and experience level. Clear now? - Reply to this comment
- One of the conditions of NAFTA and theWTO was for 'international wage standards' for labor as the GOAL!
Google: 'airline pilots earn less then truck drivers and garbage truck operators'
And it doesn't matter if you fly a plane in the U.S. or Zimbabwe.
Thanks Reagan...for busting up unions...you were a good soldier for the globalists. - Reply to this comment
- Airlines may be hiring pilots that meet the minimum qualifications but something that needs to be considered is that these pilots *do* meet the requirements. If it's determined that the minimum isn't good enough then that's the FAA's fault for setting low requirements, not the airlines' fault for hiring pilots that have passed set requirements.
Posted by griking at 4:41 PM : Jun 9, 2009
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What the FAA says is irrelevant. The airlines use it as their personal CYA. We've had numerous examples of FAA failures to initiate regulations that are always a day late and a dollar short. They are political puppets for elite and the airline industry, not for flyers and consumers. - Reply to this comment
- While CEOs and Wall street hucksters are receiving enormous compensation for criminal acts, those who actually have highly responsible and technical jobs that affect people's lives such as airline pilots are being squeezed down to sweat shop labor.
This club of overly rich often NYC Wall streeters have been stripping away the economy of the USA so they can have more money than anyone ever needs. It is now time to bring out and sharpen the guillotines before it is too late. - Reply to this comment
- It's the greed factor at work. What's with the airline pilots association I thought they were all about safety and professionalism. Haven't heared a peep out of them about unsafe working hours for pilots, of course they told their pilots to fly when Regan fired the air traffick controllers even though it wasn't safe. And of course the government doesn't want to get the airlines mad.
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- 31 years have past
Is this this same World ?
Folks! The Airline Deregulation Act of 1978 was introduced by Sen. Howard Cannon, a Democrat from Nevada and signed into law by Democratic president Jimmy Carter!!! Blame the GOP all you want for other ills, this was a Democrat controlled Congress with a Democrat president who appointed Alfred Kahn as Chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board in order to bring deregulation to the airline industry.
Since 1980,...Bill Clinton was the Only Demo President until Now
Let`s set the record Straight
Rather than Skew the facts,.. - Reply to this comment
- Airlines may be hiring pilots that meet the minimum qualifications but something that needs to be considered is that these pilots *do* meet the requirements. If it's determined that the minimum isn't good enough then that's the FAA's fault for setting low requirements, not the airlines' fault for hiring pilots that have passed set requirements.
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President Obama's 
