Originally Posted by
rock-the-boat
I'm often surprised by the lack of empathy when topics such as this make their way onto the forum. I wonder if it's a matter of psychological relief, knowing statistically accidents will happen and that it was not to “me” that it happened? Could it be a deluded belief that there are no circumstances that provide a degree of complexity where I would run out of ideas before I run out of fuel?
There is no empirical evidence to show that this crew was less well trained or less competent than any contributor to this forum. Until we understand the complexity of the situation that this crew faced perhaps we should leave it at that.
Years ago; to get an airline pilot job required an ATPL, a face to face interview with the Chief Pilot, and a SIM check.
Nowadays, there is a whole extra raft of on-line tests one has to pass - maths, verbal comprehension and IQ type pattern recognition - both written and CBT style, along with telephone pre-interviews, leading to recruitment days with group exercises etc, before one gets anywhere near the head office interview room or the Sim test.
Once employed, there is CRM training, and accident analysis leading to specific focussed training, along with regular multiple system failure scenarios in our recurrent Sims.
As far as poor weather is concerned, do pilots not still read the NOTAMS and Wx for their destination and alternate airfields during their pre-flight briefing, and fuel their aircraft accordingly?
So I think we could be forgiven for thinking that pilots should be getting ever more competent and well trained as time goes by, and this could be why there is such mystification, and perhaps even outrage, when "simple" accidents like this continue to happen?