Updated Feb 8, 2010 - 5:22 pm
Aviation expert doesn't blame local pilot for crash
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MyNorthwest.com
The National Transportation Safety Board has ruled that pilot error caused the Buffalo, N.Y. airline crash co- piloted by a Maple Valley native and now it's saying the regional carrier may not be held to the same safety standards as the major airlines.
The plane dove into a house, killing all 49 people aboard and one man in the house Feb. 12, 2009.
Frontline's Miles O'Brien, an aviation specialist, told KIRO Radio's Dave Ross on Monday that the crash reveals several problems with the airline industry.
"It never hurts to blame dead pilots," O'Brien said, adding that airlines frequently lean on pilot error as a cause because it limits their liability.
The first officer, Rebecca Shaw, 24 of Maple Valley, should have stepped in to push the plane's nose down herself when the pilot responded improperly, but she may not have because she was a relatively inexperienced pilot, investigators said.
O'Brien said large airlines take advantage of the fact that pilots are often overworked and underpaid. The Frontline investigation found that 51 percent of the departures in the U.S. are flown by small commuters working under the names of the large airlines. "The airlines are outsourcing," he said.
In the case of Shaw, she was a young pilot trying to work her way up under Colgan, a small carrier. "She was making less than $20,000 per year and her base was New York City. That was not going to work for her, obviously, so she lived at home in Seattle. She commuted all the way across the country with a head cold to sign in for her flight," said O'Brien.
O'Brien said there will always be commuting as long as pilots are able to take advantage of it, but it's not always a recipe for an alert pilot.
"The fact is, when you're making that kind of money, you're not checking into a hotel room. You're not even participating in these shared apartments they call 'crash pads,' which is probably an unfortunate term in this case. So you're sleeping on the plane you fly over in, you're sleeping on the reclining chair in the pilot's lounge, and you're signing in sick for a flight," said O'Brien.
Shaw knew she was sick and maybe sleepy, but the airlines don't have rules about how much sleep a pilot gets. It's the pilot's responsibility to determine whether he or she is fit to fly. "When you have people stressed as they are in this business, trying to make it, trying to get to the next level, trying to get that dream job at Fed-Ex or one of the major carriers, they will push themselves because they have to," said O'Brien.
O'Brien said there are no incentives to choose safety because the lowest bid wins. If the airlines cut enough corners, each little bad decision could result in a horrible consequence.
Frontline's "Flying Cheap" airs Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 9pm.
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