Regional Air Carrier Safety

Regional Air Carrier Safety

Kevin Soukup

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Instructor: Ms. Kelli Arthur

April 24, 2012

Abstract

This paper will examine regional air carrier safety including pilot qualification and aircraft maintenance practices. I will look at regional airline incidents and accidents attributed to pilot error and faulty maintenance. I’ll also look at the ethical issues involved in the way regional airlines operate and what is being done to change the safety mindset of the industry.

Regional Airlines

When you purchase an airline ticket you are placing your life into someone else’s hands. Wouldn’t you want to know that the person behind the yoke of that aircraft is competent, qualified, and capable of making the correct decision during an emergency sequence of events? Wouldn’t you want to know that the aircraft is being properly maintained? Shouldn’t the airline you are flying on ensure that they run an accurate background check on their pilots to ensure they are entrusting only the best possible people with your life? Unfortunately, some smaller regional airline carriers are not always ensuring that this is the case. Some of these regional carriers are hiring inexperienced pilots and foregoing important safety programs in order to keep costs down. The question of ethics, what’s right or wrong, should be at the very heart of this debate and it would take the loss of forty five passengers, four crew, and one person on the ground during the loss of Continental Connection Flight 3407, operated by Colgan Airlines, to highlight this issue. I’d like to look this chain of events and other ethical dilemmas faced by smaller regional air carriers as they compete for your fare.

Have you ever bought an airline ticket on one airline, showed up for your flight and were put on some other airlines aircraft? To understand where the regional airline fits into the airline industry you must first understand the concept of code sharing....