Originally Posted by
HOVIS
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.
So the prevalence of on-line psychometric tests, which can be taken by a candidate's 14 year old son, or indeed the whole family, gathered around the computer at home, somehow detects those who are not stable or not suitable for employment as a pilot in charge of hundreds of passenger's lives?
Recent incidents such as this, or the jump-seat pilot pulling the engine disconnect fire handles, or the Siberian crew who could not even de-ice correctly, and then failed to follow basic and simple memory drills, or the pilot who thought it was reasonable to source and take illegal drugs during a lay over before flying long-haul; would strongly suggest to me that pilot selection is concentrating on the wrong attributes and missing some fairly fundamental checks.