As nearly everybody seems to know by now, in what New York's governor David Patterson termed a miracle on the Hudson, the flight crew of US Air flight 1549 successfully ditched their mortally damaged Airbus A320, saving the lives of all 156 aboard.
By all accounts, it was a feat requiring tremendous skill, quick thinking and steady nerves, reinforced by countless hours of training and years of experience. When one reporter asked the pilot of a similar airliner how he would characterize losing both engines shortly after takeoff as flight 1549 did, his answer was simple: "Catastrophic."
Pilot Chesley B. Sullenberger III and first officer Jeffrey B. Skiles are heroes. So are the flight attendants who successfully and quickly evacuated the plane's 150 passengers. The passengers of flight 1549 have to be thankful, indeed, that their fates were entrusted to such a highly competent air crew. So, too, do the people of New York City, who were spared the horror of a fully loaded airliner crashing into their city.
There's an interesting lesson in this which nobody seems to be noticing, but which bears attention. The airline industry has been financially troubled for some time now, and has been desperately seeking means of cutting costs. One of the industry's favorite targets is employee salaries, and most companies have been trying to force pilots and flight attendants to accept significant pay cuts. Despite resistance by the Airline Pilots Association and the other employee unions, the pay cuts have been significant.
It used to be the airline pilot pay was quite good. It isn't anymore. Top pilots are paid less than many other professions, and junior pilots are paid quite a lot less. A recent report found that beginning pilots with one of the major airlines makes just $21,000 per year, while the same airline's most senior pilots with decades of experience top out around $150,000.
Okay, most of the time, even many airline pilots will admit that they really don't earn their pay. I've heard some self-deprecating pilots liken flying airliners to driving a bus. It's easy to understand the pressure to cut their salaries.
But when flight 1549 lost its engines moments after takeoff, or Aloha Airlines flight 243 suffered an in-flight explosive decompression that ripped huge pieces of fuselage away, or United flight 811 flying over the open ocean lost a cargo door that then shredded much of the fuselage, or United flight 232 lost an engine plus the hydraulic system needed to control the plane and could only be steered by using the throttles of the two remaining engines, their pilots earned every penny of their salaries, and more. Altogether, their skill saved 780 lives which would have been lost had the pilots not be extraordinary.
What are the implications? If airlines keep trying to weaken their unions, and keep trying to cut flight crew and maintenance salaries, will they be able to attract the quality of pilots that the public deserves, and the airlines need? Will the Chesley B. Sullenbergers, Robert Schornstheimers, Mimi Tompkins, David Cronins and Alfred. C. Haymes of the future still be attracted to commercial flying if this trend continues? Will the flying public be able to retain their confidence in the skill of their flight crews?
Airlines understandably seek to manage costs and operate as efficiently as possible, but it is a false economy to seek savings which could over the long term dilute the quality of the flight crews upon whom so much depends.
Note: this was originally posted on ketches, yaks & hawks 18 January 2009
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