Dear PPRUNE members:
I have been following this thread and would like to draw some parallels to a case in the US. You may remember the case of the Continental Express Q-400 turboprop that crashed in Buffalo, NY last January. This crash occurred just weeks after the USAirways flight 1459 landed in the Hudson River.
The National Transportation Board faulted crew rest, training, and is also questioning the entire pay concept at the regional airline level. The low pay brings out things like pilots living in crash pads and commuting across the country because they cannot afford to live in base. While the NTSB and the FAA will not mandate wage scales, this accident has provided the impetus for raising the licensing standards and requiring both pilots to hold an ATP as a minimum. This bill is in the House now and a similar bill is being worked on in the Senate, although the ATP requirement may be watered down.
The FAA is charged with the safety of the traveling public, and our independent Union, USAPA, the US Airways Pilots Association, and CAPA, the coalition of Airline Pilots association, an industry trade group is having some success in pointing out the low pay poor training and minimal standards of these operations. We are stressing that allowing minimum standard pilots to operate aircraft under the paint scheme and marketing arrangement of the mainline carrier partner is fostering a fraud on the traveling public.
The public responds to safety issues and allowing training to go on during revenue flights by pilots who are not on the airline payroll, who are not employees of the airline and who may not meet the minimum standards for employment, but meet only the minimum standards for licensing, if there is such a distinction in the UK, is a safety travesty. The public is being duped and paying good money for tickets on Carriers that are regulated by the appropriate UK authorities. The public is buying tickets on an Airline, not an airline training school. The certification of an airline is something I would presume to be done in the public interest for the purpose of providing efficient and safe air transportation.
This is the equivalent of having discount brain surgery provided by first year med students on a pay for practice scheme. It reminds me of the Monty Python sketch where Mr. Gumby goes to the Brain Surgeon, Dr Gumby and says “My brain hurts.” Dr. Gumby says, “It will have to come out.”
Pay2fly or (PFT), pay for training, as we call it on this side of the pond needs to die a horrible death or at least in the words of Dr. Gumby, “It will have to come out.” One of the ways to get the public on your side is to focus on the safety aspects of this issue and point out that an accident may not have yet occurred in the UK due to this but accidents where minimal training was cited as causal factor have recently occurred in the US.