First Officers Should Have Same Qualifications As Captains

What will happen is the rules will get so restrictive that the time minimums will keep pilots from even getting to the first officer point. Some will even spend 10-15 years instructing, and by the time they get to that point they have 20 years at best of having a chance to have a "career" with an airline at mostly mediocre pay. With the increasing costs of fuel and user fees being touted, it will discourage pilots from even trying to gain experience so they can make it a career, causing a bigger pilot shortage.

Plus the times don't mean anything unless the person has the talent and aptitude to show for it and to act as a PIC or SIC. I've known pilots so desperate and dishonest who have falsified times in their log books by thousands of hours and they have the aptitude and decision making abilities of a student pilot, including one who (IMO, was too egotistical and mentally incompetent to fly a plane) froze up in the left seat of a Hawker during a starter/generator failure, causing the guy in the right seat, (who actually had more experience) to take over and land the plane at night in barely VMC conditions. So numbers DO NOT mean a thing. There has got to be a better solution. I recommend incorporating a rigorous mental health and aptitude screening as a requirement before considering times and ATP to be a determining factor for an F/O. He is there to get the experience so he can earn the ATP and become a captain isn't he?

How is this even a story? Sounds like monday morning quartebacking.

We're heading toward the 1500 hour/ATP rule in a few months.

What happened to supply and demand? Sure, 250 hours seems low but how many airlines really hire people at that number? As I understand it the vast majority of applicants are completing against a whole lot of other would-be pilots for a finite number of jobs. Therefore the airlines can simply start with the applicant with the highest number of hours and work their way down until all of the positions are filled, which leaves many pilots looking for work.

Additionally, the scenario highlighted in the article in which the captain of the Alaska flight had a medical emergency leaving the first officer alone in the cockpit is irrelevant. We have no idea how many hours the first officer had. Hell, he may have been a captain at another airline before being downsized. But no matter how many hours the first officer has, if the captain goes down he's still "only" a first officer. And even when these magical regulations take effect there is still very little chance that every flight will have two "equally qualified pilots" in the cockpit. After all... Why are captains... captains?

Anyway, get ready to pay more to go see grandma. Someone has to fund these extended apprenticeships.

then why would you ever be a first officer?

Something more to his request than passages and freight. I don't even understand the first officer is just that and as he or she grows they will become captains.... The problem inwhich differential thrust was used was done by a check pilot , because the captain did not have the answer, not his fault it happens, but being captain did not help. I couldn't remember the airport sorry approach.

What they need to do is go to work on the Regionals and get their pilots off starvation wages. I expect, don't know for sure, that there are some RJ Captains out there with less than 1500 hours if the truth be known. It is really gonna be a trip if that 1500hr rule takes hold.

Saying FOs should have the same qualifications as Captains, is as ridiculous as saying resident physicians should have the same qualifications as attending physicians.