I have credits on Delta to use up and an upcoming trip to Boston. I want to book my DC-Boston flight on Delta, but I see it's actually Republic Airways flying as "Delta Connection."
How safe is a smaller airline like Republic Airways? |
It’s fine. For short hops like this all the major airlines use affiliates. |
Fewer flying hours and younger pilots. |
And yet so few crashes. It’s perfectly safe. |
It's driving distance. Would only up their chance of a fatal accident by around 1000x. |
Huh? |
When’s the last time there was a fatal commercial air accident in the USA? |
Was a joke about the idea of passing out safety levels of US airlines, when the next alternative (driving for most people) would be orders of magnitude more dangerous than flying on any airline. |
Some of the pilots look like babies. I fly regional carriers but the pilots are pretty young. |
Honey, it's that you're getting older. |
No $hit Sherlock. I’m old. |
The last "major" crash was 2009- a commuter prop plane went down when ice built up on the wings during flight (more than normal, but not excessively so), slowing it down, and the pilot reacted incorrectly, causing the plane to stall and crash 5 miles before the airport. 49 people died. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colgan_Air_Flight_3407 Others with deaths more recently were the Asiana crash at SFO in 2013 (pilot error, brought the plane in too low and slow). 3 people died https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiana_Airlines_Flight_214 And the 2018 Southwest flight near Philly where the engine exploded and a piece went through a window, pulling a passenger out, the only death. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlines_Flight_1380 Really an incredible safety record for last 15 years. |
*Parsing out |
Also the statement is inaccurate. After the 2009 Colgan Air crash, the FAA increased minimum training hours before certification for commercial flights to 1500 hours. Before the Colgan Air crash, in some circumstances a pilot with as few as 250.hours could become a first officer. It's a part of the reason there is now a pilot shortage. Some think it's too stringent, and there is a lobbying effort to reduce it to 750 by some airlines. https://reason.com/2023/10/23/lawmakers-and-unions-defend-burdensome-airline-regulations-with-bogus-statistics/ (Not the most unbiased source, admittedly, but the basics are accurate. The EU 250.hours regulation is stricter than it sounds though, because of additional non-flight training that's also required ). |
Regional carriers are less safe than large commercial. But still very safe.
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