Originally Posted by
cessnapete
Why do the FAA persist with this arbitrary and meaningless 1500 hr figure?
Sigh..... couldn't be bothered to actually read the thread where this question has been answered repeatedly, could you ?
OK, One more time;
In the wake of the crash of a Dash-8 in 2009, the US congress passed a law which requires all airline pilots to hold an ATP certificate. More precisely, the Law required the FAA to enact a regulation requiring it, but same end result. It wasn't the FAA's idea, and whether you or I or the FAA thinks it's a good idea or a bad idea is irrelevant; Congress has decreed that it shall be so.
As far as arbitrary and meaningless, perhaps, and as has been pointed out it wouldn't have prevented the Colgan accident, because both pilots had more than ATP minimums. Congressmen are politicians and sometimes politicians operating outside their area of expertise pass laws which don't make a lot of sense ... but that's where we are.