Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights canceled or delayed

Re:Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights can... by ashtonkem on Sunday October 10, 2021 @11:46PM (#28824431)

> I assume the current administration could direct the Dept of Defense to make military pilots available to Southwest in the event of an extended availability issue with their union pilots.

No, they could not, not without a wholesale reworking of the entire FAA. Pilots are trained and certified on individual airplanes; even highly experienced pilots need retraining in order to safely fly a new aircraft. Shoving a bunch of military pilots into 737s is both highly illegal, and would probably result in some plane crashes.

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Re:Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights can... by speedybird on Monday October 11, 2021 @03:16AM (#28825673)

I mean, how many P-8 pilots does the navy have? A P-8 is a 737NG.

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Re:Southwest operational meltdown as hundreds of flights can... by ashtonkem on Monday October 11, 2021 @10:01AM (#28828386)

They might have enough, there are 122 P-8s in service, and surely the Navy has > 1 pilot per P-8.

I can’t speak to any material differences between the P-8 and the civilian 737, but legally this still seems problematic. The DoD isn’t required to type certify their aircraft, and it doesn’t look like the P-8 or the C-40 (also a 737) are type certified as a 737, which means their pilots probably can’t legally fly a 737 civilian model. I could be wrong though, the FAA’s website is hard to navigate.

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