My brother is an airline pilot.  He sure has alot to say about the airline industry.  And it's not good. 

Last month my husband and I flew to VA  and then from Iowa to Floridia.  For two of us the total price for everything including taxes was about $221.  We were estatic. 

My brother, when he found out, was angry.  He said it was ludicrous.  He was not happy.   What's the problem? 

He went on a rant against the airlines.  He said there's alot of problems that the average person is not aware of.  He said if he didn't have to fly for his job he wouldn't.  He warned me not to fly if I can help it.  He also said he's surprised there hasn't been a lot more accidents.  He went on to share with me that we have no idea how close and how often we probably were to being a statistic we hear about so often on the news. 

He said this all started under the Bush administration with the Republicans at the helm.  I kept in mind that he is a Republican and very conservative.  He blamed the changes squarely on politics.  I also remember after that crash in Buffalo that killed 50 people that my brother immediately said it was pilot error.  That was before it even came out on the news.  Since then it's been reported that there was, indeed, pilot error involved. 

Now, he said, there's alot of mistakes going on in the air of which we haven't a clue.  

When he flies, to and from his job, quite often he sits in the cockpit with the Captain.  There's an extra seat in there which he takes.  During this time he gets to see firsthand how these pilots handle themselves.  One thing he's noticed is how young these Captains are now.  Many of them are 23 or so years old.   

I did notice that.  After one of the trips last month as we were getting off the plane, the Captain was standing there and I immediately turned around and said to my husband, "did you see how young that Captain looked?"  He couldn't have been 25 years old.  I thought  to myself I'm glad I didn't see him beforehand. 

My brother told me that the last flight he was on, the Captain, who couldn't have been even 24 years old showed him pictures of his nude girlfriend while he was flying the plane.  My brother was disgusted.  To him this just exhibited the young pilot's immaturity. 

I found out that other well trained pilots have been noticing this as well.  They say it's about time that Washington and passengers alike pay attention to the cockpit.  Many of these new pilots are under-trained, immature, and are paid very little and that is the reason I guess our tickets were so cheap.  It's a wonder there hasn't been more accidents.

As my brother was sharing this information with me I remembered my youngest son telling me months ago similar things.  He said there was all sorts of AP articles coming off the wire dealing with this subject.  I'm sure we only see very little at the media's discretion in choosing what to print and report. 

There was a time when a pilot's job was a coveted one and it was hard to break in.  They usually died before they retired it seemed.  My brother, a Navy Pilot, who flew during the Gulf War in the 1980's had a very hard time securing a job as a commercial pilot.  Now, with low pay and decimated contracts it's not an attractive job any more. 

A pilot in a recent article in the newspaper said "What you're finding is the qualifications of the entry level pilots in the traditional airline business have gone from adequate to very inadequate." 

Scary.