Colgan Air Threatening to Fire Pilot on FBI Watch List

This is absolutely despicable. Colgan Air, a regional airline that operates primarily in the northeast US for US Airways and United, is threatening to fire one of their pilots because the government has placed him on one of the many terrorist watch lists.

Er, didn’t he go through the same background checks as everyone else Colgan (and other airlines) hired? Is Colgan admitting to themselves — and the public — that governmental background checks are inadequate? If so, I think they have a lot more people they need to fire.

I just posted about a similar situation two days ago, the main differences being the airline involved and the relative seniority of the pilot. Robinson, the mainline captain who also happens to be an FFDO, is not facing any action on the part of his airline because his airline has enough common sense to know that the TSA and FBI can’t maintain a proper watch list to save their lives.

Colgan, on the other hand, is behaving pretty fucking shamefully here. It’s not Erich Scherfen’s fault the FBI thinks a decorated 13-year military veteran might be a terror suspect. Heck, if the FBI doesn’t think a five-year-old named James Robinson should be allowed to fly simply because he’s named James Robinson, I don’t think the FBI’s opinion on these matters is valid in the first place.

Unfortunately, Colgan pilots are non-union (they rejected a vote to certify ALPA last fall, IIRC), and this is going to bite Scherfen right in the ass if his lawyers can’t get the government to remove him from the list. Airlines will find any excuse to fire pilots, believe me. And I’ll just go on the record now and say that I will never have anything to do with Colgan Air as long as I live unless they immediately back down from this ridiculous position.

Google this, you bastards.

UPDATE, 04 September: Colgan has reinstated Erich Scherfen. His lawsuit against the government continues.

posted by Chris on 22 August 2008 at 1622 in aviation

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