Huck and 411A are both right about some things:
to huck... I would like to meet you and I am sure you would see things like I do...and God Bless your dad for telling you to fly a cessna like a 747. but I will tell you this...fly a 747 like a cessna too...always know where you are and where you can land PRONTO if you need to , and not by pushing a button.
Did poor pay cause this accident? no.
411A...yes you are manly for flying the 411 series...keep up with those leg exercises. and you are quite right, no V1. ;-)
To 411A. yes, you are right, pay shouldn't matter. the trouble is, something has happened to airline flying and to the younger folks flying the planes. something NOT GOOD. I ask you...what would have happened to the pilots if at 06:00 they both called their crew scheduling and told them:
"we are not well rested enough to fly...we can take off at 10 am if you like."
To both of you, isn't it possible that there is a less than stellar leadership and hiring process at comair? a less than steller operations and training department?
Is it possible (and I believe likely) that the captain signed on with the comair training academy, paid some serious dough, and got mediocre training as a pilot? and of course, what goes around comes around...so being comair trained, comair got the wheat that they sewed?
note that the copilot who didn't go to the comair ab initio training world was the first to notice the lack of lights?
and what of training? my airline, and others say: if you aren't at flying speed by the last 1000' of runway (windshear) firewall power and pull up!(if you can't stop safely of course)...how come comair didn't? don/'t they teach that?
of course how can one know if you only have 1000' of runway left if there are no lights, or instrument markings on the runway (I would like to see a picture of runway 26)?
fatigue...sure...and comair could have a policy: IF YOU ARE FATIGUED DON"T FLY AND WE will not fire you or dock you any pay...safety first.
and they could mean it...but I'll bet you that they don't!
And ALPA could be a little more forceful and tell the pilots> FATIGUED? don't fly, call in and let people know AND WE WILL HIRE THE BEST LAWYERS in the country to defend you, and provide supplemental pay while you are grounded without pay.
There is so much more to this, and it is mearly a symptom of a very sick industry.
ALPA should challenge the laws allowing the potus to order pilots back to work after a strike...gott be unconstitutional! ;-)
And yes, I have flown 3 round trips from Boston to Sewark, er I mean NEWARK without auto land, with 2 jet engines and had multiple runway changes. and for some reason we did it at 16,000' on the way to newark...doing a lot of flying over New jersey below 7000' (with our landing lights extended & on to avoid the GA stuff)