rickair7777

It's not hard to guess what the problem is at UAL... 26 year-old regional FOs cosplaying international WB CA, while also trying to keep up their content production.

While SW has hired some folks recently, and maybe had some retention issues, anybody in the left seat should have almost ten years on property. So I'm perplexed as to why they appear to have a rash of flight path management events.

FlyPanAm

United had no incidents involving '... 26 year-old regional FOs cosplaying international WB CA.' I am not even sure United has 26 year old WB CAs.

The Southwest incidents have been frequent and serious. Not sure what's going on as they have not really had the rapid hiring and upgrades that other legacies are dealing with.

rickair7777

It's a metaphor for hiring churn, and evolving priorities and philosphy.

SoFloFlyer

IIRC, the incidents at UA were not with NHs or younger pilots

Tenacvols

Upgrade came down to 6.5 years, but yes, left seat should have at least 2K hours in type.

Jet J

I thought the triple that almost flew into the ocean off OGG and the 767 that got crushed were both newer pilots?

UALinIAH

Junior 777 CAs at UAL were hired sUAL 1999 and sCAL 2006. Not sure that 18-25 years is "newer". No clue on the DOH for the 767 CA involved

REF 5

About decade ago we had issues with unstabilzed approaches. SWA at the time just implemented SMS. So it went all the way to the top of leadership. SWA, when compared to the other carriers had the worst unstabilized approaches in the industry. The company made all pilots come in for an ops day and watch all these crazy approaches captured on FDAP(FOQA for the rest of industry). Experience wasn't the problem. Many captains were doing it themselves. It was the first time SWA started leaning into the FO's to speak up and making sure things are being done correctly and per procedure. RRM philosphy was still in its early day's. I could remember during upgrade, they hammered us on it. It was a big focus. To their credit, the data captured over the next 36 months was a great improvement. So much so, for a short time, SWA had a higher average than most when it came to stabilized approaches. Seems like we lost our way again doing the basics. I personally welcome this audit. Needs to happen. I don't know the why's, but this is unsustainable.

rickair7777

So it's old guys with decades of experience on type? What changed?

at6d

During CQ a couple of weeks ago it was stated that SWA is number 1 in compliance with stabilized approach criteria of the big 4. Not my statement—but that’s what the Company said.