THIS IS EXACTLY WHY SENIORITY MATTERS

[as the prop turns]

Need I say more. Experience and divine intervention saved this aircraft.

If this doesn't show this company that experience has a value, I don't know what will.
Take a good hard look Parker. We are professional dedicated employees of USAir.
Treat us and compensate us as such.

 

[nycbusdriver]

First, if you believe that Divine intervention played a part, then by definition nothing the crew did would have mattered. Personally, I believe in the "Divine" part, but not the intervention part.

Experience does have value, but what of our customers who board flights where the captain and first officer may have only a fraction of the experience of the pilots of 1549? It is certainly occurring daily with our customers using our express system.

No. Research and training is what saved these lives. Capt. Sullenberger epitomizes both of these factors to the Nth degree. I'll bet that if you asked him yourself, he would agree.

And the title of the thread invokes seniority, yet you don't even mention that in your post. Seniority does indeed matter, but it has nothing to do with 1549. We had F/Os hired at zero seniority who have previously been highly trained at other carriers and by the military. Does their seniority have any bearing on how they do the job? Or is it the training they receive and implement?

 

[ClueByFour]

Seniority had nothing to do with it.

 

[Dignity]

The performance of the flight crew(the entire flight crew) was exceptional under the circumstances.. emergency landing, evacuation and ditching..
This is a result of training qualified professionals.. serving and working all roles onboard as crew members from Captain, First Officer, Lead Flight Attendant and Flight Attendants acting quickly, making the right decisions and responding as trained while focused on safety.

That flight crew is a reflection of an entire work force... keep your heads high US Airways..because that crew was you.


Dignity-
NW Flight Attendant

 

[traderjake]

Need I say more. Experience and divine intervention saved this aircraft.

If this doesn't show this company that experience has a value, I don't know what will.

Experience is a function of longivity, not, as the title of this thread implies, one's position on a seniority list.

Your inability to distinguish between the two is remarkable.

It's insulting to everyone involved for you to attempt to use this incident to promote your personel agenda.

 

[luvn737s]

While I won't put words in anyone's mouth, I would not be surprised if Capt Sullenberger didn't credit all the pilots of previous accident aircraft and the investigators who learned all they could from those accidents to add to the body of knowledge and experience that either prevents future accidents or makes them more survivable.

Lift a glass to them.

 

[sharktooth]

Experience is a function of longivity, not, as the title of this thread implies, one's position on a seniority list.

Personally, I could care less. Were a crew to be staffed with an inexperienced Captain, when I became uncomfortable, I would take over. period. By whatever means necessary. He/she would become a passenger, at best, at that point.

To minimize such possibilities, I would suggest a DOH/LOS approach.

 

[necigrad]

No. Research and training is what saved these lives. Capt. Sullenberger epitomizes both of these factors to the Nth degree. I'll bet that if you asked him yourself, he would agree.

And the title of the thread invokes seniority, yet you don't even mention that in your post. Seniority does indeed matter, but it has nothing to do with 1549. We had F/Os hired at zero seniority who have previously been highly trained at other carriers and by the military. Does their seniority have any bearing on how they do the job? Or is it the training they receive and implement?

The performance of the flight crew(the entire flight crew) was exceptional under the circumstances.. emergency landing, evacuation and ditching..
This is a result of training qualified professionals.. serving and working all roles on board as crew members from Captain, First Officer, Lead Flight Attendant and Flight Attendants acting quickly, making the right decisions and responding as trained while focused on safety.

That flight crew is a reflection of an entire work force

These two posts are dead on. First seniority has nothing to do with it. EXPERIENCE might, but not seniority. Inflights go through a hell of a lot of training and practicing before they get to fly. Pilots start learning in (generally) a small single engine GA aircraft, moving up in size and number of engines. As they move up in aircraft or into the airlines, they learn how to operate as a crew. All of this EXPERIENCE came together in a few minutes for the pilots, and I'm gathering LESS then a minute for the inflights. It comes down to training and experience. I doubt the pilots have ever actually practiced ditching an aircraft in a simulator. Planes don't ditch successfully. In this ONE instance training, experience, and (if you believe in it) luck came together into a tremendously fortuitous event.

 

[drifterreno]

It seems to me the vision of the airline today is to get rid of the "old" long working people. Both in the air and on the ground and in res. They can hire anyone for just about minimum wage--okay so a little more--give them a cut back training class and put them out there. Not only was the front seats maned by experienced pilots, but the crew in the back were too. Res, I'm sure was bombarded with scared, frightened people and I'm sure only the experienced agents knew how to take time with them and calm them down so they would go ahead and fly. I'm sure the people in Manila don't even know where the Hudson river is and they did not have a script to read to someone histerical asking if their loved one was on the plane. The solution--keep your experienced, dedicated employees who want to make this job a carrier and stop trying to push them out the door.

 

[luvn737s]

I think Parker and Co. want to re-make the airline business into one that is a stepping stone onto something better rather than considering it a career in itself. He envies that about the regional airlines.

 

[lpbrian]

I heard the first officer has 26 years......Why is he still only a first officer? America West is the same age..

 

[necigrad]

He's an FO with that much time for a few reasons. First off there were (dunno about now) so many East pilots on furlough that at one point the JUNIOR FO had something like 15 years. Second it may be choice. For whatever reason (days off, holidays...) he may have chosen to remain a FO.

 

[cleardirect]

Personally, I could care less. Were a crew to be staffed with an inexperienced Captain, when I became uncomfortable, I would take over. period. By whatever means necessary. He/she would become a passenger, at best, at that point.

To minimize such possibilities, I would suggest a DOH/LOS approach.

You failed to define what you considered “inexperiencedâ€￾ Would it be 5000, 10,000, 15,000 hours? The number of approach flown? The number of oceanic crossings? Or is it just the date that you showed up at your current airline? The new hire that had previously been flying for the presidential squadron all over the world. Is he to be considered inexperienced too? It is fairly naive to simply use DOH to define “experienceâ€￾

Just to be clear. You said “a crew to be staffed by an inexperienced captainâ€￾ Do you mean to say that as a pax you would take control of another pilots aircraft? You did not say that you were part of the crew.

Do you consider DOH more important than experience?

Reports are coming out that the F/O was PF. Suppose that in this same engines out situation the captain had thousands of hours droning along over the Atlantic. The new hire F/O had a couple of hundred hours as a glider pilots. Who should really be manipulating the controls? The guy with the experience of unpowered flight or the guy that has sat in a seat longer?

 

[ableoneable]

Personally, I could care less. Were a crew to be staffed with an inexperienced Captain, when I became uncomfortable, I would take over. period. By whatever means necessary. He/she would become a passenger, at best, at that point.

To minimize such possibilities, I would suggest a DOH/LOS approach.

I think this says it all.

I am sure that the first time you pull this the Captain will calmly allow you to live out your fantasy. He will do this because to fight with you would endanger the airplane.

After landing, however, I am sure that he will pull the CVR and DFDR breakers, enter it in the log, call scheduling to have you replaced, call the CP office and have you removed from the line and after the FAA watches the DFDR data and determines that you are just a pilot with an attitude problem you will be forced to surrender your certificate - permanently.

Problem solved.

 

[NiceLandingCaptain]

I heard the first officer has 26 years......Why is he still only a first officer? America West is the same age..

Sorry, you heard wrong - the first officer was hired by the airline in 1986. I won't speculate as to why he is "only" a first officer.

He's simply a h-e-double-l of a pilot in my eye.