Posted on 10/15/2009 11:25:48 PM PDT by ozguy
Michael Moore's pointing out something no one in the media seems to want to discuss: How little money the people who are flying commercial planes are getting paid. As he says, these are not the people you want working a second job:
We're on the descent from 20,000 feet in the air when the flight attendant leans over the elderly woman next to me and taps me on the shoulder.
"I'm listening to Lady Gaga," I say as I remove just one of the ear buds. I know not this Lady Gaga, but her performance last week on SNL was fascinating.
"The pilots would like to see you in the cockpit when we land," she says with a southern drawl.
"Did I do something wrong?"
"No. They have something to show you." (The last time an employee of an airline wanted to show me something it was her written reprimand for eating an in-flight meal without paying for it. "Yes," she said, "we have to pay for our own meals on board now.")
The plane landed and I stepped into the cockpit. "Read this," the first officer said. He handed me a letter from the airline to him. It was headlined "LETTER OF CONCERN." It seems this poor fellow had taken three sick days in the past year. The letter was a warning not to take another one -- or else.
"Great," I said. "Just what I want -- you coming to work sick, flying me up in the air and asking to borrow the barf bag from my seatback pocket."
He then showed me his pay stub. He took home $405 this week. My life was completely and totally in his hands for the past hour and he's paid less than the kid who delivers my pizza.
(Excerpt) Read more at crooksandliars.com ...
You are entirely correct. Here in Sweden the average salary of a GP is about 65k a year. Are you going to go through all that schooling and take on all that liability for 65k a year?
Here's another kicker. My kid's go to an private international school. The only people who send their kids there are the diplomats and corporate types who can afford it. There is another, less prestigious, less nice school (english speaking, as is the international school) that is state funded. That is where all the doctors and research specialists have to send their kids. They can't afford the private school. But, the diplomats sure can.
On the Democrat's world, they want to make sure the corporate kids can't go there either. Just the elites from the government. IMO, THEY should be the ones sending their kids to the substandard 'free' school.
You are right. All government employees should have to live with what they force onto us. Government run health care, substandard schools, illegal immigrant crime...
A good number of pilots have a business on the side. A back up in case of health problems. Insurance. you never know.
If that new bill goes through, requiring the ATP for first officers, the regionals will have to raise salaries; I would think....
Some of it happened at Colgan Air, and the FAA is plenty interested now, only because the public is interested.
WASHINGTON — The co-pilot of the commuter plane that crashed last February near Buffalo said shortly before takeoff that she felt so ill that she would have called in sick had she not just flown across country to report to work, according to data released Monday by investigators.
Co-pilot, Rebecca Shaw, 24, could be heard sniffling and sneezing during the two hours before the Feb. 12 crash that killed all 49 people aboard the flight and one person on the ground, said an expanded National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) transcript of the cockpit recording.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-27-buffalo-plane-crash_N.htm
A FO doesn’t need an ATP ticket??? WTF!
Thank you for being honest, and even when you dislike the source, having the courage to look at the evidence.
parsy, who wishes there was more of this
As much as I hate the government making laws that screw with the free market, the public will get more experienced pilots as a result of this one, should it go through.
Apparently you care enough to post a comment:
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If he was on a 19 seater or possibly a regional jet $16k-$20k would not be unusual for a pilots salary ...
Don’t feel bad; that Sully who landed the plane in the Hudson River complained about the same thing (months before Moore). Even a broken clock is right twice a day.
I got my ASEL in the 80’s. At the time, I toyed with the idea of working my way up and turning it into a career. Doing a little research, I found out that green FO’s at the time were making under 20k / yr.
A 60% pay cut for a 20k investment in training didn’t make sense - and wouldn’t have made my new wife too happy.
Lady GaGA is a tranny
My wife just bought me Sully’s book for my B-day. At the back is the transcript of the mishap, denoting all conversations and audible cockpit warnings. The very last recorded entry, after the plane has come to a stop in the water, is a computer-generated warning that says “retard”. Who the computer is referring to, I do not know.
OK, I get the idea that a regional airline will have newer pilots, which theoretically could be more dangerous (although it could be safer because they just finished training, and they will be working hard to prove themselves).
But what difference does it make how much they are paid? You think they would be better pilots if you just paid them twice as much?
I guess nobody should go to the hospital, because we’ve all seen that interns get paid almsot nothing and are worked for dozens of hours on end.
I have some friends who are pilots. Flying doesn’t seem to be like brain surgery.
I’d almost be more afraid if my bus driver had a second job. He’s much more likely to get me killed or injured, because his job is a lot more dangerous than an airline pilot.
But it doesn’t say that she was forced to work sick. It says that she used bad judgment because she had already flown across the country. My guess is the flight was going to get her back toward home.
How do the pilots get experience if they have to have experience before they can fly anybody?
Does Michael want our doctors and nurses working two jobs?
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