Originally Posted by
Uplinker
How about not hiring nut jobs in the first place ?
What possible reason caused any of those loss of human control incidents and this idiot to object to diverting for a medical emergency ? What possible reason could they have against doing so ?
In recent years, psychometric testing and unrealistic time-limited maths and verbal reasoning tests have become prevalent in pilot selection and a substitute for selecting mentally stable and normal candidates. How precisely did they help in the selection of this FO and other accident aircrews ??
Those of us who are mentally normal, very experienced and stable but perhaps slightly more advanced in years, are given the brush off as soon as we are required to produce our passports and DoBs. Yet we are starting to see crews who seemingly cannot even fly or follow basic memory drills or basic flight operation requirements.
What is going on here ?
And here we have the problem in a nutshell.
'Nutjobs' as you so delicately put it, are not hired on purpose. Spotting them is not an exact science.
Who says you are 'mentally normal'? Most people who 'lose it' are normal most of the time.
Pilots are as human as the next person despite what they may believe.