Word: alpa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Hell, every week that goes by, it's almost accepted as a common event, a near midair!" complains Captain Hank Duffy, the outspoken head of the 39,000- member Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA). Says Duffy: "Near midairs, runway incursions, delays -- every indicator in the system says that we're hanging by our fingernails...
...while ALPA's Duffy views Engen as "one of the best administrators we have ever worked with," he disagrees with the FAA boss on a key point. "You don't judge how the system is operating by the number of accidents," Duffy says. "The indicators predict where the accidents are going. When you are having more near mid-airs, well, it's just a matter of time before two planes will slam together, as they did at Cerritos...
...most severe critics of the air safety system are the airline pilots, who, it has often been noted, are the first to arrive at the scene of an air accident. A survey of ALPA's members in September showed not only that midair collisions are the pilots' biggest concern but that 66% of them feel that the problems of air-traffic control are more serious than the public realizes. In the opinion of 43% of pilots, deregulation has had an adverse effect on airline safety. Declares Pilot David Linsley, a 20-year veteran at United: "The system...
Some of the rank-and-file controllers have started procedures to establish a new union to replace PATCO, which was smashed in the 1981 strike. The Administration's dismissal of 11,500 strikers, although politically popular, is still hotly argued from a safety standpoint. Claims Ray Brown, an ALPA executive and air-safety consultant, about the Administration: "Instead of listening to the message, it killed the messenger. Now the message has resurfaced because the new people are expressing the same problems...
...lower qualifications than they did in the past. Newcomers are being promoted from the flight engineer's chair to the right-hand seat (the first officer's) and then to the left seat (the captain's) after logging fewer flying hours. "The , apprenticeship system doesn't exist anymore," claims ALPA's Duffy. Three major airlines -- United, American and Piedmont -- are for the first time hiring pilots who are past...