This couldn't/isn't happening in Australia, is it?
'Redeye' shouldn't mean the pilot
David Nason, New York correspondent |
May 16, 2009
Article from:
The Australian
TAKING a flight from New York City to upstate Buffalo to see Niagara Falls is commonplace for tourists visiting the US northeast, but after this week's shock revelations about the February 12 crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407, which killed 50 people, many visitors may rethink their itineraries.
Over three days the National Transportation Safety Board heard testimony that raised grave questions about the experience and ability of the pilots in charge of commuter aircraft.
At the same time, the hearings peered deep into the airline culture behind the tragedy, finding extraordinarily low wages, bizarre work practices and a stunning management indifference to pilot fatigue.
But for ordinary travellers perhaps the most jarring discovery was summed up in the anguished words of Scott Mauer, who lost his daughter Lorin in the crash and attended the hearings to find out why.
"My daughter ordered a ticket from Continental Airlines," he said. "I'm sitting here listening to people from Colgan Air. Do the American people understand what's happening when they buy an airline ticket?"
Colgan Air is a regional airline hired 18 months ago by Continental to provide services on its Newark-Buffalo route.
While Colgan's relationship with Continental is not readily apparent when customers buy a ticket on the Continental website, the airlines would have you believe that by calling the flight a "Continental Connection", punters understand they'll be flying with someone else.
Even so, customers would assume safety procedures and pilot competence would be the same. How else could Continental allow another airline to represent its brand? But as Mauer found out this week, safety and management standards can "all take a step down" when airline services are contracted out, which happens much more than people realise.
The US has 640 airports and 75 per cent are served only by regional airlines, of which there are 70. Many are commuter carriers that typically fly small, turbo prop planes with capacity of 20 to 80 seats.
The pilots tend to be inexperienced, as was the case with Marvin Renslow, the pilot of Colgan's death plane.
On Tuesday the hearings were told that Renslow had failed flight checks in the aircraft five times before he passed, and that he was unfamiliar with emergency procedures to prevent the aircraft from stalling.
It also emerged that Renslow was one of 29 Colgan pilots who commuted more than 1600km to work. Paid just $US55,000 ($72,500), he couldn't afford to live in New York, so he flew in from Tampa, Florida. On the day of the crash he arrived at Colgan's Newark offices at 3.15am.
Renslow's co-pilot Rebecca Shaw, 24, was even worse off. Her salary was a paltry $US25,000 and she lived with her parents in Seattle on the other side of the country. The hearings heard she once had a second job in a cafe to help make ends meet.
Testimony by Colgan officials on Wednesday revealed the company did not pay cost-of-living adjustments so pilots could live in New York. But they did pay such adjustments to managers.
Asked if Colgan expected Shaw to live in the New York area, vice-president Mary Finnigan said: "Pilots are told what the pay scales are. Our pay scales are within the industry standard."
On the day before the crash, Shaw left Seattle on an overnight FedEx flight and arrived in Newark at 6.30am after changing planes in Memphis, Tennessee. She then sent text messages throughout the day, evidence that she wasn't sleeping.
Renslow was seen sleeping in the crew lounge, which is prohibited by the airline.
Asked how the company monitored the fitness and alertness of pilots who commuted such long distances to work, Colgan flight operations chief Harry Mitchell said: "We expect professional pilots should show up fresh and ready to fly an aircraft."