Nation & world briefing
Feds examine pilots
in US Airways crash
Rick Rothacker, Scott Dodd,
Ted Reed
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
CHARLOTTE, N'.C. — Although
just 25 years old, Katie Leslie, cap
tain on US Airways Express Flight
54N1, had 3,400 hours of total
flight time with the airline and
1,500 hours flying the type of
plane that crashed Wednesday, a
typical level of experience.
First Officer Jonathan Gibbs, 26,
had less flying time — 1,100 total
hours with the airline and 750
hours in the Beechcraft series —
but had graduated from a rigorous
two-year training program.
According to an Associated
Press report, Jonathan Gibbs grad
uated from the University of Ore
gon in 1997 with Spanish and eco
nomics degrees. His father, Skip
Gibbs, spoke to Santa Rosa’s The
Press Democrat.
“(Jonathan) had an incredible
range of interests and skills,” Gibbs
said. “He was very generous, full of
humor and kindness.”
Jonathan Ornstein, chairman and
chief executive officer of Mesa Air
Group, also spoke highly of the pilots.
“Both of our employees were fine
airmen and fine people,” Ornstein
said. The Phoenix-based Mesa Air
Group is the owner of Air Midwest,
which operated the plane under the
US Airways Express banner.
Although the crash investigation
appeared to focus Thursday on
maintenance and mechanical is
sues, the National Transportation
Safety Board is also looking into the
experience of the pilots.
It was unclear late Thursday
which pilot was at the controls as
the plane took off. But both were
among a cadre of commuter pilots
who work long hours to rack up liv
ing time, often with an eye on
someday Hying larger jets, pilots
and aviation experts said.
Frank Graham, an experienced
pilot and former safety director at
CCAir, a Mesa subsidiary, said
Leslie’s experience level was typical
for an operator of a 19-scat aircraft.
And 700 hours for the first officer is
equivalent to about a year of flying
that type of plane. Gibbs would
have had at least 250 to 300 hours
of training on top of that before fly
ing for the airline, Graham said.
He also said it’s not unusual to
have a captain of Leslie’s experi
ence teamed with a first officer of
Gibbs’ experience.
Mark Kaufman, a former com
muter airline pilot in Charlotte,
N.C., also noted that pilots at re
gional carriers can gain experience
quickly, practicing takeoffs and
landing on as many as six flight
legs a day.
“We’ve got 23- and 24-year-olds
flying 5200 million aircraft defend
ing our country with less flight ex
perience,” Graham said.
Leslie joined Mesa in March 2000
and was promoted to captain about
a year later. Gibbs was hired in May
2001. The Mesa training program
he participated in at San Juan Col
lege in New Mexico has a “high
washout rate” because of its rigor
ous requirements, Ornstein said.
With 3,400 hours, Leslie was at
the middle of the seniority list at x\ir
Midwest. By comparison, Ornstein
said, pilots leave the military with
about 4,000 hours.
Even at regional airlines, compa
nies train pilots how to handle stalls
and abnormal situations, such as
rolls and steep pitches, said Dave
Esser, professor of aeronautical sci
ence at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
University at Daytona Beach, Fla.
Commuter pilot salaries can start
below §20,000 but reach about
§100,000, said John Mazor,
spokesman for the Air Line Pilots
Association. That compares to ma
jor airline pilot salaries which can
max out at more than §200,000.
Mesa wouldn’t say what Leslie and
Gibbs earned.
Before being hired by a regional
airline such as Air Midwest, pilots
often gain flight hours by flying car
go or working as flight instructors,
pilots said. After that they might
strive to land a major airline job. In
creasingly, though, more are opting
to stay at commuter airlines.
“They are making a lifestyle deci
sion,” Mazor said. “Although the
pay is less, most of the flying is lo
cal. In many eases, they can go
home at night.”
The airline industry’s financial
problems, including mass pilot lay
offs, also have made jobs scarce at
the big airlines.
© 2003, The Charlotte Observer (Char
lotte, N.C.). Distributed by Knight Rid
der/Tribune Information Services. Ore
gon Daily Emerald editor in chief Michael
J. Kleckner contributed to this report.
Sharon struggles for power
Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson
Knight Ridder Newspapers (KRT)
JERUSALEM — Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon took to the
airwaves Thursday night in an an
gry performance aimed at saving
his struggling re-election campaign
by characterizing bribery allega
tions against him and his hawkish
Likud Party as “despicable libel."
It took Israel’s election commis
sioner just 13 minutes to order lo
cal television and radio to stop
broadcasting the news conference,
calling it election propaganda that
violated broadcasting laws.
The truncated speech highlight
ed Sharon’s fading hopes of a
strong Likud election finish Jan.
28, which would allow him to be in
firm control of the government in
coalition with much smaller con
servative parties. Instead, analysts
say, a severely weakened Likud
probably will have to reach out to
form a coalition with the dovish
Labor Party.
The result could be that Sharon
is forced into a much softer stance
toward dealing with Palestinians
than had been expected just a few
days ago.
A new Likud-Labor partnership
was unthinkable even a month
ago. Sharon’s “national unity” gov
ernment collapsed at the end of
October when Labor ministers
withdrew from his Cabinet to
protest budget measures support
ing Jewish settlers in the predom
inantly Palestinian West Bank. The
collapse strengthened Sharon’s
and Likud's popularity.
Now Likud is fighting to stay in
power amid the bribery scandal,
in which some party members
have been accused of buying votes
in the primaries. The number and
intensity of the allegations are un
precedented in Israel’s 55-vear-old
history, said Ephraim Ya’ar, a Tel
Aviv university sociology profes
sor who specializes in Israeli polit
ical trends.
“It’s an embarrassment for Is
rael,” Shinui Party Knesset mem
ber Avraham Poraz, the deputy
leader of his party, declared in an
Taize Prayer Service
Sunday, January 12, 8 p.m.
Ben Linder Room EMU
Music, Singing and Silence
in the tradition of the
Taize Community of France
Questions? Call Jeremy at 346-4694
Sponsored by Lutheran, Presbyterian. United* Methodist: and Episcopal Campus Ministries
interview with Knight Ridder.
The biggest blow came this
week, when Sharon also became
embroiled in a bribery scandal. On
Tuesday, the liberal English-lan
guage daily newspaper Ha’aretz re
ported that the prime minister re
ceived a SI.5 million loan from a
South African businessman to use
as collateral for another loan that
covered the return of illegal cam
paign funds from 1999.
© 2003, Knight Ridder/Tribune
Information Services.
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