As an ex EK “John Deere” Tractor driver this is so disappointing to hear about and certainly not reflective of the vast majority of pilots when I was there, equally skilled and capable of dealing with busy JFK, or gracefully touching down in the freighter at MLW into ElDoret at 7000msl off an NDB approach in a non radar environment with an uplift thunderstorm off the plateau smack dab on the procedure turn , let alone lifting off from home base. While none of us here know what happened here, many have suspicions and guesses which might be confirmed or rejected with time but all of us that have flown there know the myriad of “challenges” of operating at EK. Many of us reviewed the weekly safety incident wrap ups shaking our heads at some of the ridiculousness some of our colleagues found themselves in from some quite simple initial cockups exacerbated exponentially sometimes by the ever present push (by both trng and fleet) to overly rely on the automation. In reality the best solution in many cases (not all) was a quick disconnect of both the autopilot and auto throttles, sort out the FMAs, perhaps cycle the FDs, then build the automation back up, which would paradoxically require a mandatory report and thus invite scrutiny, second guessing and possible punitive action from a rather inhospitable East German. Couple that with varying levels of bone numbing fatigue and you suddenly stop shaking your head at those reports, become less judgmental and realize that may very well be your report next week. Hopefully EK will finally heed these warning signs and change course, expend effort and money in hiring and more importantly retaining experienced crews, producing reasonable rosters, creating a non punitive safety and training culture that actually encourages questions and filling in gaps in knowledge (instead of the “OIC” recurrent). Then again one can dream!
Last edited by VThokie2; 29th Dec 2021 at 23:58.