Originally Posted by
BluSdUp
So
Lets compare professions:
Pilots and Doctors
This poor footballer was in for some minor surgery, expecting a Surgeon.?
He got a pipe fitter with a dull knife.
Tragic
As someone with a foot in both camps, I do find it somewhat ironic that the medical profession is frequently exhorted to learn safety lessons from the aviation sector (such as the recognition of the importance of Human Factors, and the existence of CHIRP, in particular). Of course, a licence to practice medicine does not include a category equivalent to the PPL (or LAPL or NPL, whatever they might be), so a comparison with the commercial aviation industry is altogether more appropriate, the excellent CHIRP GA Feedback notwithstanding.
The General Medical Council (equivalent to the CAA, I guess - certainly in terms of its level of fees!) maintains both a General Register and Specialist Register (overseeing the equivalents of CPL, IR, ATPL and Type Ratings, I guess - but not requiring regular Medical Certificates, curiously). As in aviation, however, there are always the outliers (frauds with bogus qualifications, and those who push the envelope of their licences, such as GPs offering a sideline in minor cosmetic surgery) but, by and large, the SLF equivalent can be pretty confident that an NHS medical practitioner is, at least, competent. A practitioner wishing to work in the private sector will find it exceedingly difficult to do so without phenomenally expensive medico-legal insurance cover.
Meanwhile, the aviation sector is awash with “grey ops”, and has been for as long as I can remember. As one of the first cohorts of wannabee FIs to need a BCPL for a role that previously, and subsequently, demanded only a PPL, I was not best pleased initially, but quickly came to realise how much better a pilot, and therefore an instructor, this additional knowledge and experience made me; I subsequently went on to gain a CPR/IR, purely for reasons of self-satisfaction.
As such, I was not infrequently approached to act as front-seat freight on single-pilot charters, in order to give the illusion of redundancy to the SLF, who tended to expect two bodies up front. Rarely was I type-rated on the aircraft concerned; sometimes, I’d never even have set eyes upon one, and was able to contribute little more to the flight than changing the squawk. It was fun when I was younger, although I did rapidly became bored with hanging around in LSGG, Frankfurt or wherever until the SLF had concluded whatever business was so important as to preclude a commercial flight. My final such trip was a scud-running VFR flight home from Brussels, when even sensible pigeons had grounded themselves voluntarily. No surgeon would have risked his licence, let alone his life, when the evidence base clearly demonstrated the degree of risk involved. That must have been around 30 years ago now; thereafter, whilst I’ve relinquished the left-hand seat to many a low-hours student, admittedly in the knowledge that I could always assume control myself if necessary, I have never again done so to a “professional” with whose qualifications and experience I was not personally familiar.
That the circumstances which, in 2019, have led to the death of an individual of great footballing talent, but with no appreciation of the shortcomings of aviation regulation and oversight, have been allowed to continue unchecked, is, in my view, wholly disgraceful.