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Let s/he who has never screwed up cast the first stone. ManGoneADreamin is exactly right. They screwed up, they know it and they will never do it again. Do you think that hero pilot who saved a plane load of people in NYC would be there when needed if he had been canned immediately the first and only time he screwed up? Sheesh, we are so punitive when we can take the high road. So they will be replaced with new pilots with half their experience and they will actually kill people like the crew in Buffalo, NY. Yah, makes sense. NOT. Sometimes the only punishment people need is the wake-up call of a close call.
I honestly think they fell asleep. It's the only thing that makes sense. Sure, they may have pulled their laptops out and used the onboard wireless, but then they fell asleep.
It's interesting that a) their certificates were revoked, and b) that it happened so fast. In certificate actions, the FAA normally conducts a time consuming investigation done while the pilots are on suspension pending the results. But this was classified as an 'emergency' revocation. And that is ONLY because of the media coverage. FAA is notorious for making knee jerk decisions under the eye if the press. Yet, fatigue is the single greatest threat to flight safety and is a casual factor in a majority of aviation accidents. It has been demonstrated that a tired pilot flies about as good as a legally drunk pilot. Yet, after decades of dragging their feet, the FAA still refuses NTSB recomendations to address fatigue!
Jeez, an airliner can completely miss the runway altogether and land on the taxiway instead (Continental in Newark, Delta in Atlanta- surprise surprise fatigue was a factor!) and the pilots are still flying. Why? They never got huge media coverage. They weren't the subject of late night talk show jokes.
I'm not defending these pilots. What occurred was a serious deriliction of duty. Rather I'm pointing out what a complete farce of an organization the FAA is. This was not done in the name of safety, it was done to give the appearance of being a competent gov. administration. They had spotless careers, that should have been a consideration. Revocation is too severe imo. Suspension and firing would have been adequate. But they were made an example of for the media. There are pilots who have been prosecuted for drug possession, drunk driving, etc that are flying passengers at major airlines.
Just as an aside, the media screwed up this thing about the pilots trying to be reached via their cellphones. It was attempted via SELCAL (pronounced cell call), a communication uplink in planes. And they were texted by company dispatch, but on the ACARS, a textual communication system. The press always reports false information as fact concerning aviation. This cell phone business is bunk. They hear SELCAL and TEXT MESSAGE and voila' we have the cellphone.
Samyn, why did you post that link? I happen to think the person that responded to you is pretty on target. You do need to see someone.
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