Release #05.ALA5
December 28, 2005

Alaska Pilots Union Responds to Emergency Landing of Flight 536

SEATTLE -- Alaska Airlines Capt. Paul Emmert, vice chairman of the Alaska pilots union, issued the following statement regarding the incident resulting in the emergency landing of Alaska Airlines Flight 536 on Monday:

“Anything that compromises safety--for ourselves, our crew, or our passengers--is unacceptable. When it’s a situation that easily could have been avoided, it makes it that much more so. Finding out what happened, why it happened, and, most importantly, how to keep it from happening ever again is paramount as far as we are concerned.

As pilots, we train for these types of situations and are prepared to react and respond, but it’s something that we hope we never encounter outside of the flight simulator.

The fact that no one was hurt illustrates the importance of having highly skilled, trained professionals in the cockpit. There were 140 passengers, in addition to our flight crew, depending on the pilots at the controls of that flight, and those pilots did a superb job and we commend them.”

Founded in 1931, the Air Line Pilots Association represents 63,000 pilots at 40 airlines in the United States and Canada, including the approximately 1,525 pilots at Alaska Airlines.

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ALPA Contact: Jenn Farrell, (303) 522-6399