Is a copilot who failed to catch the fact that the captain forgot to lower the landing gear deserving of unemployment benefits? One Iowa judge said yes, but the state's Employment Appeal Board said no. Donald G. Scarsella "knew what to do, was trained on what to do, was able to do it, was required by policy and safety to do it every time, and still did not do it," the Board ruled last week, according to the Des Moines Register. On Feb. 14, Scarsella, 49, was the second in command of a SeaPort Airlines Pilatus PC-12 on a flight from Kansas City, Missouri to Salina, Kansas. The crew did not extend the gear prior to landing and the airplane slid to a stop. No one was injured-which is typical of inadvertent gear-up landings in civilian airplanes. However, the Appeal Board's opinion was that "This is more than merely making some mistakes."
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/no-unemployment-pay-for-gear-up-copilot