I'm going to piss off a lot of GA guys, but I don't think anyone should be flying passengers without military experience, I don't care how good our civilian flight schools are.
When the military gets back to producing anywhere near the number of pilots required for today's civil aviation industry, let us know...
The military is going PILOTLESS whenever possible these days. The future pilot stream will come from University Flight Programs like PURDUE, ND State and others...
I thought there had to be a clear voice transmission of "Your clear to take of on runway ##", and a confirmation before they could take off?
Since the airport is tower controled 24/7 this is another classic San Diego PSA.
Taking off on the wrong runway it had to be a screw up by the pilot, ground control, and the tower.
Any one of the three could/should have stopped the takeoff.
It is true that there are very many poor flight schools around that will let anyone through as long as they pass their FAA check-rides and tests. However, there are also a ton of great schools out there. There also aren't even close to enough military pilots out there to keep the airlines flying. I went to a four-year university with a very respected commercial flight program. Although I did not major in professional flight, I had to go through a lot of a flight training. Safety was our foremost concern.
KEEP THIS IN MIND ALSO: The captain may not have been pilot-in-command. The FO might have been at the controls and the pilot may have been operating the radios. I don't know how Comair works, but on many airlines, the captain and FO alternate PIC duties.
.. I always liked the Delta Connection commuter flights from Melbourne or Orlando to Atlanta.....and vice versa.
For some reason, they felt safer....and I knew it would take under an hour to reach my designation.
So today's news is extra sad....the poor souls probably thought...'one more short leg of this trip, and I'm home'....
Very sad.