In what seems like a ridiculous overreaction, the Senate and House of Representatives have passed a law which will increase the number of flight hours pilots need before they can fly commercially from 250 all the way up to 1500 – a whopping 600% increase!
Ostensibly, this is to prevent a similar catastrophe to the 2009 crash of a Pinnacle Airlnes jet in Buffalo which killed 50 and was attributed to pilot error. Only problem is that the pilot of that plane actually had 3263 hours of experience — so this law wouldn’t have helped that situation at all.
Is airline safety really a problem that requires such a dramatic change to a requirement that has existed for decades? And if so, will such a huge increase in the flight hour requirement really address that problem?
As David Rowell points out in his excellent blog post, the answers are no and no.
First off, the airlines, to their credit, have done a tremendous job in making flying a very safe mode of transportation. Say what you want about the service they provide, but when it comes to what matters most, the airlines are definitely getting it right. As Rowell points out, today only one out of every one million flights has an accident where somebody dies. That’s an awfully good record.
Second, if you go back and look at every single crash with fatalities over the last 10 years, the pilots in each case had between 2790 and 13,050 hours of flying time. So in not a single instance since at least the turn of the century has a passenger died on a plane being piloted by someone with less than 1500 hours of experience!
Why then the urgent need to change the law?
Just look at who lobbied for the bill and you’ll find your answer. It was the pilot unions. They were the main proponents of this legislation. Is the union really suggesting that all of its members were unfit for duty for the first 1,250 hours each flew commercially? Or could it also have something to do with the fact that this law makes it much more difficult for new pilots to qualify for jobs, giving a lot more leverage to the existing pilots just as new contracts are being negotiated at many airlines? Considering that higher labor costs invariably lead to higher fares, it could be the travelling public who ends up footing this bill.
February 4, 2011
First of all, you have to be a complete idiot believing that there is little difference between a 500hr pilot and a 2,000 hour pilot. Articles like this state dead wrong facts making you believe that the hour requirement is no big deal. IT IS!!!First of all you state that “Not a single instance since at least the turn of the century has a passenger died on a plane being piloted by someone with less than 1500 hours of experience!” This is a complete lie. In every aircraft, you have a Captain which has 1500+ time and the First Officer. There has been hundreds of times where the First Officer had way less than 1,000hr total time in which a crash occurred. You can’t look at these crashes and count only the Captain’s pilot time and not the Officer’s genius.
After working on the flight deck in the Navy as an enlisted man, I enrolled and graduated from the University of North Dakota. Home to one of the most prestigious flight schools in the country. I have my pilot’s license and currently working on my Flight Mechanic’s license.
So why do these crashes happen? The reason is when you have a worthless Captain at the controls, you better have some time under your belt so you can speak up when there is a problem. If you don’t have the experience, your not going to speak up and tell the Captain to “F off” and tell him hes dead wrong. If the First Officer had more time on the books, these crashes wouldn’t be happening.
Lastly, do you think a 24yr old driver on the road is just as good as a 35 year old driver. This is not rocket science. The reason some individuals want to keep the hours low is the filtration of big flight schools like the one I went to. You can go to a one year flight school (or your local FBO) and get all your ratings in less than a year. Then instruct your ass off for a year or two and get hired in no time. The problem is big flight schools like the one I went to and Embry Riddle don’t want this and are set up to MAKE MONEY. Thats why their programs are sometimes 5-8 years long and their graduates have very little hours. The reason for this is 95% of their curriculum is all book!!!If you go to a 5 yr. flight school, you will have roughly the same amount of time as if you went to a 1-2yr flight school. Also if you increase the time, the airlines will have a smaller pool of pilots to choose from and will be forced to pay the newer pilots more money. The airlines don’t want this and want to pay newbies 25K a year.
Ask any professional pilot in the industry and they will tell you, its a good idea to increase the hours. Your talking only 1-2 years extra of flight instruction which in turn saves lives. RDW