Selling paint at Home Depot (家庭百货) can be more lucrative (获利的) than flying a commercial airplane. That startling (令人震惊的) fact emerged (出现) last week after three days of hearings (听证会) by the National Transportation Safety Board (全国运输安全委员会) into the crash of Continental Express Flight 3407 on Feb. 12 near Buffalo (布法罗), which killed 50 people.
Among the headlines: The flight's 24-year-old first officer, Rebecca Shaw, earned less than $17,000 in 2008, her first year on the job with Colgan Airlines, the Manassas, Va.-based carrier that flies regionally for Continental, US Airways, and United. (The company later said the pay figure was reported incorrectly during the hearings, and that Shaw actually made $23,900.) Her pay wasn't the only part of the crash narrative that raised warning flags for some. Testimony (证词，证据) also described the captain's prior failings on inspection flights and Shaw's overnight "red-eye" commute to work.
Yet it was Shaw's situation that seemed the most gripping (引人注意的), raising these questions: With so many costs squeezed out (挤出来) of airlines in recent years, just how low can a cockpit (驾驶室) salary go? And is the airline industry reaching the limits of an economic model that seems to have more in common with Wal-Mart than with a highly trained profession where safety must come before all else?