Years ago a TC inspector commented some Canadian operators call up and ask for 'general opinion' of a candidate. The U.S. has a formality called PRIA and candidates are required to sign to release their records.
Has anyone else heard the same thing about informal calls to TC about new candidates or is there something like PRIA guidelines for Canadian pilot candidates?
Comments?
TC pilot-candidate informal background check
Moderators: North Shore, sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako
Re: TC pilot-candidate informal background check
http://www.tsb.gc.ca/eng/rapports-repor ... 1.asp#s2.1TWA had an established pilot hiring process that included a checklist of questions for interviewing a candidate and a check of references provided by the candidate. The process provided the company with an opportunity to verify that candidates met minimum screening criteria.
In the case of the captain and first officer, the absence of records documenting their hiring indicates that the company did not follow its established process. The captain's resume and a brief telephone inquiry to the captain indicated that he held appropriate licences and ratings issued by TC and that he met the company's King Air captaincy requirements. The company made an offer of employment to the captain (although the investigation could not determine which manager made the offer) and the captain accepted the offer.
The investigation revealed that the captain's previous employers had restricted his employment because of repeated non-compliance with regulations and standard operating procedures (SOPs) and had strong concerns about his flying proficiency and decision making. The employers did not readily provide information to the investigation about the captain's flying history and it is extremely unlikely that they would have responded to a reference check from TWA or any other prospective employer with anything other than an acknowledgment that they had employed the captain. In fact, the letters of reference the companies provided portrayed a substantially different perspective of the captain than did their training records.
The company could not have learned of potential weaknesses in the captain's past performance that would require close supervisory monitoring because of systemic constraints on free passage of objective factual information about employment candidates. Some of these constraints are federal and provincial privacy legislation as well as the potential for legal action by former employees.
These constraints are societal; consequently, they affect the entire aviation industry. Therefore, it is likely that many air operators experience difficulty obtaining standardized information on the quality of pilot performance because of systemic constraints on the free passage of objective factual information about employment candidates.
Similar conclusions have been made by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). Refer to Appendix H regarding action taken in the United States by the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding standardized information on the quality of pilot performance.
