Pilot Dies In-Flight; Co-Pilot Lands Jet

MyFoxPhoenix ^ | 21JAN 2007 | MYFOXPhoenix

[Popman]

That is frightening.

Why?

These planes darn near fly themselves except for take off and landings

[strange1]

Did he eat the fish?

LOL, my thoughts exactly....

Murdock : But just remember, my name is ROGER MURDOCK. I'm an airline pilot.

Joey : I think you're the greatest, but my dad says you don't work hard enough on defence. And he says that lots of times, you don't even run down court. And that you don't really try . . . except during the playoffs.

[Old_Mil]

ATLANTA, Dec. 20, 2006 – Delta Air Lines today will officially begin accepting applications for new-hire pilots in anticipation of exhausting its pilot furlough list in 2007. Interviews for new Delta first officer positions are scheduled to begin in January.

It's one thing to start accepting applications. It's quite another to be able to get the job. I don't know how many people Delta is planning on hiring - let's say a dozen a month to combat attrition. They will probably get a thousand resumes a month for those positions.

[thefactor]

"you ever just..hang around the gymnasium?"

[countrynewsguy]

It takes many many hours of flight time to even qualify for an interview. Airlines do not hire "newbies".

The story goes that the future cockpit will have two crew members...a pilot and a dog. The pilot's job is to feed the dog. The dogs job...bite the pilot if he touches anything.

[Vicomte13]

Hell of a way to earn your flight commander's qual...

[HawaiianGecko]

_hg

That is frightening. Thank heaven the copilot had his wits about him.

I'm sure he did. All domestic airlines in the U.S. use a seniority system to dictate a pilot's position, which plane he flies (which determines their pay) and what schedules they keep. For pilots, seniority dictates everything!

In a seniority-based system, all pilots are considered equally qualified. The drawback of a seniority system is that even if you're ranked No. 20 out of 5,000 pilots at airline A, with 25 years of seniority and scads of overseas experience in large jets, you will be placed at the bottom of airline B's seniority list if you have to switch airlines for any reason, including your airline going out of business. This means you would likely begin as a reserve flight engineer or co-pilot. Your experience travels with you, should you leave, which might help you get the new job, but your seniority does not. Hence, most pilots stay with an airline rather than lose the seniority they've acquired.

There's a reasonable chance the co-pilot was more experienced than the pilot.

All that said and more to the point of the article... I don't ever remember a Captain of a major airline dying in flight.

 

[mdmathis6]

"I had a friend who was a surgeon...always in perfect health. During an operation one day, he dropped dead. Cerebral aneurysm."


I'm sorry for your loss...but I hope the surgeon wasn't doing a vasectomy at the time!

[magellan]

"They will probably get a thousand resumes a month for those positions."

No doubt. They always do.

While I know many major passenger airline pilots who have been furloughed I also have quite a few pilot friends who have been hired by Southwest, Airtran, and FedEx over the last few years.

"I don't know how many people Delta is planning on hiring - let's say a dozen a month to combat attrition."

Hiring to replace attrition is the sign of a stable, if nongrowing, company. However, Delta is also growing, albeit slowly, having acquired some additional 757s from American Airlines for additional international service. It has sold off some future 737 orders, so it is not growing as much as it might have planned a few years ago.

Given the mandatory FAA 60-year retirement age for passenger airlines, the baby boomers aging, and the dramatic reduction in military pilots in the post-cold war ear, my guess is in a few years there will be shortage of pilots qualified for the major jet airlines.

[Pharmboy]

Thanks for your kind words...he was a general surgeon and was assisting on an abdominal procedure at the time. All their nefforts to revive him, of course, proved futile.