MerchantLoup, just shut up boy.
DeltaTango, that kind of idiotic bad taste 'joke' may go down well in your local pub after 10 beers, but it is totally inappropriate on a website dedicated to aviation. Many, many people have died and you want to get a snide laugh out of it. Please apologise, or cease posting.
People, please do not go off the deep end of despair about your job prospects. Yes, there will be a fallout from this as the public's confidence in flying is affected. But the public has a very short collective memory, and they will very soon be looking for their next break in the sun, or whatever. The business world will have to carry on regardless, although we already, and will continue to, see a reduction in travel due to the economic slowdown. That may well get worse in the short term, but we will recover.
It may well be that the minimum acceptable qualifications rise to 1000-1500 hours, with some jet time, to get an airline job. I can tell you that most of the airline operators and their passengers will welcome that. You may, as did many before you, have to spend time on an apprenticeship on airtaxi work or similar.
But you think you've got it tough? In the States (and many other places) it was already commonplace to need 3000+ hours before a 'real' airline job came your way. The effect on US wannabes of the failure of Midway and the crisis in the domestic sector, and the very real problems that AA and United in particular will face as their customers desert them in droves after yesterday, will make your problems getting a job in UK seem trivial.
[ 13 September 2001: Message edited by: Scroggs ]