Fatal Flying on Commuter Airlines No Accident in Aviator Complaints to FAA

[marmar]

Fatal Flying on Airlines No Accident in Pilot Complaints to FAA
By Caroline Salas


Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- On the evening of Dec. 10, 2007, pilot Kenny Edwards got the order to fly a Continental Airlines Inc. commuter flight from Tampa, Florida, to West Palm Beach. He told his dispatch supervisor he wouldn’t do it.

The plane’s collision avoidance system was broken, and a worn seal around the main cabin door made it difficult to maintain air pressurization above 10,000 feet, he told his bosses.

Gulfstream International Airlines Inc., which operated the Continental flight, ordered Edwards to fly the 19-passenger Beechcraft 1900D turboprop plane anyway, Edwards says. He refused. As a result, he was fired.

Edwards filed a complaint with the Federal Aviation Administration, bringing into focus the hidden dangers of flying on regional airlines, which account for half of all scheduled passenger flights in the U.S., Bloomberg Markets magazine reported. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aaNPBjZ2kB54&pos=10

[Dogtown]

1. K&R n/t

[snagglepuss]

2. Kudos to the pilot. K &R . nt

[Aviation Pro]

3. Gulfstream Airlines is adjunct to Gulfstream Academy....

...the most dangerous of all the scam flight schools. The typical "First Officer" on a Gulfstream flight is actually paying for the privilege of flying in the right seat in order to "build time." The Captain/PIC is in reality flying single-pilot on a crew-based aircraft and the right seater is simply a warm body, with a still wet CPL-ME-I, to meet the 121 legal requirements to launch the airplane.

Airlines and flight schools like this should be run out of business and the owners arrested, tried and imprisoned.

[DemoTex]

4. A good friend used to fly with Gulfstream Airlines ..

Fortunately, he survived Gulfstream to go on to a major airline. He had horror stories about Gulfstream. I might add that he was considerably older than most of his colleagues at Gulfstream, and he knew a shaky operation when he saw one (he was a highly-decorated, Army OH-6 "Loach" pilot in Viet Nam).


Safer than Gulfstream?

[Aviation Pro]

5. No doubt....

...that flying the "Loach" the predecessor to the Little Bird was safer.

Blue side up, brown side down.