A few things to note here.
1. Shortly after the ATP rule kicked in here, regional jet salaries increased significantly, as well as the introduction of significant signing bonuses. Part was the increased hiring from major airlines (sucking up the CA’s and senior FO’s), part was the shortage of 250hr guys willing to do anything to fly a jet. Some of them have just become 1500hr guys willing to do anything, but that’s something else. To give you an idea of the size of the increase, at my first airline, the starting salary for a first officer has gone up 127% (that’s not a typo, it’s more than doubled) in 3-4 years. T&C have improved as well. Back when I was there, the management laughed at the idea of paying a FO that much. “We’d love to, but can’t possibly afford it” they said. As of today, they’re still doing business, and say they’re profitable, so I guess they found the money somehow.
2. Somebody mentioned doing 1500hrs towing banners. Firstly, not all of us got 1500hrs towing banners on VFR days. That’s one of several paths. Each path has its merits though. The banner tow guys (in my experience) are quite comfortable at the edges of the aerodynamic envelope, and are perfectly happy getting airplanes into and out of stalls all day long. Unfortunately, some pilots without that experience get very nervous at Vref-1, and react inappropriately to stalls.
I’ll agree though, that a logbook alone can’t tell you how well the pilot will do in an airline cockpit, and we need to do a better job of weeding out those who shouldn’t be there.
Regarding the lack of background disclosure. That has been a known issue since the Colgan 3407 accident. There’s a system in the works to address it. It was spoken about in the interviews. Unfortunately, it’s not quite up and running yet, a decade later.
Last edited by Check Airman; 26th Dec 2019 at 07:40.