Buffalo Q400 crash

I'll wait for the NTSB results, but, if there's a silver lining to
this incident, it's that the major news networks must have been hit
with a few thousand e-mails pointing out pilot salary... In one
afternoon, CNN went from outrage over why such low-time pilots were
flying the airplanes to focusing on the fact that the pilots made less
than the average janitors. Somebody clued them in that you're not
going to get high-time superpilots flying your ass around if you
expect to pay them fast food drive-thru wages.

There's the bottom line that, fortunately, CNN tried to expose:
Americans are only going to get what they're willing to pay for and if
they want bargain-barrel rates they're going to have to expect bargain-
barrel service. Most people clearly still believe that air transport
pilots make doctor's wages. Maybe this will people up.



-c

On May 20, 2:00*pm, C Gattman wrote:
I'll wait for the NTSB results, but, if there's a silver lining to
this incident, it's that the major news networks must have been hit
with a few thousand e-mails pointing out pilot salary... *In one
afternoon, CNN went from outrage over why such low-time pilots were
flying the airplanes to focusing on the fact that the pilots made less
than the average janitors. * Somebody clued them in that you're not
going to get high-time superpilots flying your ass around if you
expect to pay them fast food drive-thru wages.

There's the bottom line that, fortunately, CNN tried to expose:
Americans are only going to get what they're willing to pay for and if
they want bargain-barrel rates they're going to have to expect bargain-
barrel service. *Most people clearly still believe that air transport
pilots make doctor's wages. *Maybe this will people up.

-c

Well, that may be true, but the vultures are already circling and the
manufacturer and airline are going to be sued...

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...-1ae3e0730f27&

wrote:
Well, that may be true, but the vultures are already circling and the
manufacturer and airline are going to be sued...

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...3-38cb-42a0-bd
c8-1ae3e0730f27&

There are some interesting claims I heard directly from the attorney for
the respondent in the following case which was brought against a different
Colgan pilot in 2008:

http://www.ntsb.gov/alj/alj/o_n_o/do...ation/5421.pdf

The above just contains the judicial decisions and reasoning - very little
of the testimony is mentioned - and doesn't cover the nature of the FAA
response.

In the above case, basically the first officer of a Colgan flight accused
the captain of creating a false load manifest and thereby flying
recklessly. The captain and FO had personal animosities and the FO was
allegedly on his way to losing his job when the FO reported the incident.
According to the judge, the "resolution of this case rested on a
credibility determination." He found against the captain.

As I understand it, a list of unprofessional actions and flight activities
were brought to the attention of the FAA during this case, so the FAA
established a task force for the case. The attorney said he was expecting
the FAA task force to take action against Colgan back then - but nothing
happened. It would appear the FAA may have had ample warning of problems
with Colgan operations and just cause to order correction of deficiences,
but did nothing.

It would appear that in this case the FAA allowed its promotion of air
commerce to take precedence over its promotion of air safety, and a
specific and linear causal result was this crash.

On May 21, 5:37*pm, wrote:
the vultures are already circling and the
manufacturer and airline are going to be sued...

SOP is to sue everybody within a 150 mile radius.

An unnamed defendant may ultimately be found liable, and the
plaintiffs may find themselves ultimately screwed.

But... there's probably a real lawyer in here somewhere who might
expound on that.
-----

- gpsman

On May 21, 10:34*pm, gpsman wrote:
On May 21, 5:37*pm, wrote:

the vultures are already circling and the
manufacturer and airline are going to be sued...

SOP is to sue everybody within a 150 mile radius.

An unnamed defendant may ultimately be found liable, and the
plaintiffs may find themselves ultimately screwed.

But... there's probably a real lawyer in here somewhere who might
expound on that.
*-----

- gpsman

Only if you pay him for his/her services... ;-)

BTW, never go to lunch with an attorney. You will get stuck with the
bill, and they will bill you for their time. True story.

wrote:
-c

Well, that may be true, but the vultures are already circling and the
manufacturer and airline are going to be sued...

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?C...-1ae3e0730f27&

That would happen if the pilot yelled "God is Great" and then pushed the
nose over.