These two air heads must actually be convinced that pilots flying cargo are less fatigued than pilots flying pax.
Well, I would observe that there has always been a lower safety standard for cargo operators in the U.S. Whether this should be the case has been debated here and elsewhere for many years.
Here is a post from over five years ago, since then FedEx has had yet another widebody hull loss, the fatal MD-11 crash at NRT in 2009:
Airbubba 29th Jul 2006, 16:57
>>by now FED EX must have one of the worst hull loss records in the industry!
Sadly, FedEx seems to have a widebody hull loss every two or three years. If they were a pax carrier there would be enormous adverse publicity and probably many casualties as well.
I've got friends over at FedEx who tell me the FAA has been all over their training for years now. Instead of annual AQP sim checks like most U.S. carriers, they are under a closely monitored old style six month program.
The pilot flying in the December 2003 MD-10 hard landing and fire at MEM had a history of busted checkrides before she was hired. In April, 1994 the feds pulled her ATP after an FAA inspector observed her performance. She took more training and got the ATP back and was hired by FedEx in 1996. At FedEx she had more checkride failures, a couple of DUI's and an altitude bust that set up the fateful Mad Dog line check back into MEM. Is it possible that "diversity" was promoted over performance in this case? A possibly similar precedent at FedEx was the overlooked poor employment history of Auburn Calloway who brutally attempted to hijack a FedEx DC-10 in MEM in 1994.
Traditionally, FedEx has had very high employment standards for the freight world, i.e. almost all pilots have college degrees (well, there are some Naval Academy graduates <g>) and many are like the founder [I stand corrected, Fred was an officer but not an Aviator in the Marine Corps-Airbubba], Fred Smith, ex-military aviators. The company is consistently profitable and maintenance is excellent by most accounts.
Still, the mishaps and hull losses continue at what everyone agrees is an unacceptable rate...
FedEx Off Runway MEM [Archive] - PPRuNe Forums
Shore Guy recounts earlier FedEx mishaps in the thread above:
Shore Guy 29th Jul 2006, 23:58
To my recollection, this will be the sixth hull loss for Fedex in recent history.
Going from memory here....not necessarily in chronological order.
MD-10 MEM July, 2006 (looks like a hull loss)
MD-10 MEM 2003
B727 Tallahassee, Fl.
DC-10 Stewart, N.Y. (Aircraft landed ok, burnt due to undeclared hazmat - sound familiar?). I was right behind him that morning....diverted to EWR.
MD-11 Subic Bay - as I recall, there were split airspeed indications, and they slaved the good one to the bad ADC. Went off runway end at high speed....aircraft broke apart, but crew ok.
MD-11 - EWR “Turtle” accident……
It would be difficult to imagine much larger U.S. pax carriers like Delta, United or American having a similar hull loss rate in the past 15 years and still be in business.
Will FedEx ever go five years without a hull loss? And do the feds care? Since no pax are involved is the loss rate just the acceptable cost of doing business? In my view there is definitely a double standard here and it is being continued in the new rest rules.