The families of the dead in the Colgan Air crash did what is now expected of survivors: they became crusaders to pass laws that would prevent a similar crash from ever occurring again. We have been hearing about them and listening to interviews of them on Buffalo media for years now.
The two pilots apparently didn't know the characteristics of the particular plane during icing conditions. Based on what I've read, Colgan Air was a rather slapdash outfit; now the entire airline industry will pay.
The 1500 hour requirement allowed grandfathering of current employees for a year, so a lot of the commuters have been hiring up extra guys to get through the initial pain. In the short term it will result in lower hour pilots, but it still won’t be as bad as during a hiring boom. Back in the late nineties some commuter outfits were hiring pilots with really low hours.
” Based on what I’ve read, Colgan Air was a rather slapdash outfit; now the entire airline industry will pay.”
Sounds Like British Petroleum and how the rest of the offshore oil industry is paying for their slapdash operations now. Oh wait, just like the airlines everybody pays for the higher prices in the air and at the pump.