Originally Posted by
boofhead
If I was running any airline there would be a minimum standard of knowledge and ability required of all the staff, and especially the pilots. Being able to respond correctly to any emergency listed in the QRH would be mandatory. I cannot believe some of the stuff I read here; no real pilot in the real world would come up with it. I may be a dinosaur but I still fly jets and still train pilots and I would never allow this to happen on my watch. I owe that to the people who buy tickets on the airplanes I am responsible for or that I fly.
Boff,
Once again we run afoul of the difference between the ideal and the reality. Just as it is unreasonable to expect flawless aircraft which will never malfunction (or break only in the most benign of manners), it is unreasonable to expect the average pilot to rise much above the expectations set by their airlines and training departments. The bar has been lowered, perhaps permanently, in the name of cost savings and efficiency. Boeing wanted to pretend that pilots could step into the breach when necessary, yet they did little to ensure that this expectation was justified. Some airlines believed that certain events were so unlikely that the additional investment in training wasn't justified. And the certificate authorities were happy to whistle past the graveyard as long as the big players got along and no one got hurt.
And you know what? For the most part, they were right. Commercial aviation gets it right most of the time. But not all the time. Every once in the while, the holes line up, tragedy ensues, and we spill great amounts of digital ink going through all the should haves and could haves. I'd like to think some of these lessons would stick, but I'm getting more pessimistic by the decade.
Maybe this time will be different.