9.04.2006

What we have here is a failure to communicate

A recent fatal air crash at Lexington, Kentucky had enough hubris to go around (inattentive pilots who'd first boarded the wrong plane, a lone air traffic controller because of "cost cutting" decisions at the FAA, poor runway lighting, etc.), but there seems to have been one factor not mentioned in the press, though noted via email by an expert observer:

"Comair and the press will tell you what a great plane it is. This is a total lie. The Bombardier CRJ-100 was designed to be an executive barge, not an airliner. They were designed to fly about ten times a month, not ten times a day. They have a long history of mechanical design shortfalls. I've flown on it and piloted it. It is a steaming, underpowered piece of shit. It never had enough power to get out of its own way and this situation is exactly what everybody who flies it was afraid of.
"The senior member of the crew had about five and a half years of total jet experience. The copilot less. They had minimum training (to save money; enjoy that discount ticket!) and were flying a minimally equipped POS on very short rest. The layover gets in about 10pm the night before. They report for pick-up at 4:30am. (This would support an NTSB statement that there was "a lack of precision and accuracy in their actions", but contradicts a statement that "the pilots had arrived the previous day and had plenty of time to sleep, according to a timeline provided by the NTSB".)
"I'm sorry if I sound bitter but this is exactly the direction the entire airline industry is going. Expect to see bigger, more colorful crashes in the future."

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