Atlas Air is currently contracted as the fleet service to fly the Dreamlifter in and out of Paine Field, and has been since July of 2010.
In 2017, Atlas pilots warned that unless training was stepped up for new pilots, the close calls due to pilot error would likely end with deadly results.
Two years later, on February 23, 2019 an Atlas Boeing 767 crashed near Houston, killing three onboard.
The Miami Herald obtained the recording from Atlas’s
2017 annual meeting in Miami, where a pilot shared his concerns. “There’s a certain level where the experience goes down and the challenges keep
rising that we’re going to have more close calls. And they might not end as well as they have. And that has to be addressed,” while speaking to
CEO William Flynn and COO John Diedrich.
Pictured: Boeing 747-400F, courtesy of Atlas Media Center.
