May 14, 2009 8:30 pm US/Eastern
Low Pay? No Sleep? Who's Flying Your Plane?
CBS 2 HD Uncovers Disturbing Statistics On Doomed Pilots; Sen. Schumer Demands FAA Overhaul System
By JOHN METAXAS, CBS 2 HD News
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A massive cloud of smoke rises into the night sky after Continental Flight 3407 crashed into a house outside of Buffalo on Feb., 12, 2009.
WIVB.com
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Continental Connection Flight 3407 Capt. Marvin Renslow and Co-Pilot Rebecca Shaw
WIVB/CBS
Hearings on Capitol Hill this week have given us a disturbing look inside the cockpit of the passenger jet that crashed outside Buffalo, killing 50 people.
Details like poor training and low pay have some of the flying public asking who's flying your plane.
If you take the train to the plane, there's a good chance the subway operator is making more money than the pilot of your commuter flight.
At $28.06, the hourly wage for the starting subway operator easily eclipses the $23 an hour that Rebecca Shaw, the co-pilot of ill-fated Continental Connections Flight 3407, was making.
As National Transportation Safety Board hearings point to low pilot pay, lack of training and fatigue as possible contributors to the crash of 3407, many air travelers at LaGuardia are concerned and even rethinking future travel.
"It does make me pause and consider every time I step on a plane what the training level is," Frank Otero said.
"It's upsetting. You want to know the people piloting your planes are being taken care of. It's very disturbing," Mark Kitaeff said.
And pay comparisons within the airline industry are equally disturbing.
Even entry level customer service agents, by comparison, at least at the major airlines, typically make more than the $16,000 Shaw reportedly was paid.
Take a look at the alarming numbers:
* Shaw, $16,254
* Customer service agents start at $18,000 and flight attendants start at $23,700, according to the Airline Employment Assistance Corp.
Apparently neither Capt. Marvin Renslow nor Co-pilot Shaw could afford apartments in New York.
And lack of sleep may have been a contributor to what appears to be their inadequate response to icy conditions.
Senator Charles Schumer is calling on the Federal Aviation Administration to improve pilot training.
"There are strict rules about what pilots do when they are in the air, but they don't look at all at what happened before they get on a plane. And that's gotta change," Schumer said.
Pilot training and pay are crucial issues but ultimately this is an issue of trust -- instilling in passengers a feeling that when they get on a plane, they'll be safe.
Co-pilot Shaw made so little that she had to live at home with her parents in Seattle, and work part-time at a coffee shop. She commuted cross-country the day before the flight, reportedly resting in a crew lounge.
NTSB officials said that Renslow repeatedly had slept in the crew lounge.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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