Buffalo Air Crash Inquiry

[saxman]

And remember that pilots are only paid from when the door closes to when it opens. So those hours of sitting are unpaid.

Wow. I knew it was door-close-to-door-open, but I assumed it was door-close-on-first-flight to door-open-on-last-flight.

So you're saying that if they schedule you for five one-hour flights spread over 16 hours, you are paid for five hours? That's inhumane and should be against labor laws!

Yes, I would only be paid 5 hours for that day. Many airline have their individual contracts to prevent something to be that extreme but it still is bad and have sat many scheduled 4 to 5 hour "productivity" breaks. Those breaks were what made me tired and fatigued.

In the case of the Colgan 3407 crew, the first officer was being paid about $24,000 a year (the $16,000 figure was wrong). That is not much as flight crews go, but maybe not that bad for a young kid right out of flight school. It is comparable to what a doctor gets paid for interning right out of medical school. The captain was being paid about $70,000 a year. Regardless of how the hours are calculated, $70,000 a year for a young pilot is not that bad. No, it is not British Airways 777 pay, but it is a decent living.

You're about that. The main problem is with that the regionals are getting bigger while the mainline carriers are shrinking. Regionals use to be stepping stones for pilots to get to a major airline, so starting at 20K was alright because it wouldn't take too long to make it to a mainline carrier. Over the past 10 or 15 years however, as regional jets have come on to property, airlines realized that these jets can go nearly as far as mainline jets for way less pay. So now regional jobs have been starting to fly routes that the major airlines use to fly. Pilots can no longer jump to a major because there are no jobs anymore, and many have just made the regional airline their career. If you're a First Officer, you're stuck making around 30 to 40K for years and years. Captains might make 60 to 70K but thats it. They're stuck. So what we're frustrated is that regional pilots are now expected to fly mainline routes, yet they are still being treated like 2nd class employees.

Here's an example and go no further than looking at Cincinnati. It use to be dominated by Delta flights going to all the places. Comair flew the small planes to just places like Lexington, Dayton, Toledo, Lansing, South Bend, etc. Then came the very first Canadair Regional Jet, CRJ-100 from Bombardier. (which I have flown a few times in fact!) Today CVG is nothing but RJ's. The only Delta mainline flights are a few to the West Coast, Florida, and Atlanta. With a few more spread in to like New York and such.

It's nothing but RJ's flying all the routes now.

In a 50 seater, I've flown JFK to Chicago O-hare numerous times. ATL-JFK a couple times too even. Boston to Jacksonville too, a nearly 3 hour flight.