Will pilots, can pilots, ever learn?
Boy oh boy. Some people just never learn. They are called airline pilots. Always so keen to believe that “air safety” and “security” are pure entities that will never be used by others in their “power plays” to the disadvantage of pilots. And, in the end, having surrendered access to our work place and decision making responsibilities we find it impossible to retreat and recover what was there before. And that is why in less than a generation the job will be worth buttons.
When voice recorders arrived we - or our predecessors - argued that the information would be misused. The “militant types” who made such arguments were assured by ICAO, various accident investigation agencies, aviation authorities, etc. that the contents of CVRs could “never be heard on the evening news”. Agreements were drawn up. Of course, in the end, because of local laws and other influences which had nothing to do with aviation it happened. It took a while, but it happened. In its final manifestation – in New Zealand – we had the police successfully claiming (and then defending assertively) an entitlement to confiscate the CVR after an accident, with a view to trawling through to the content in order to see if a crime had been committed (and this without prima facia evidence of crime). The deterioration took less than a career span.
With CRM – an excellent and important part of effective flight management – we invited psychologists into our workplace and found that there were some of them who did not have our interests at heart (this is being diplomatic). They got to build empires on our goodwill and came up with some quaint notions about what “hoops” we need to hop through, not to mention “assessment”. THEY decided what was good for us.
And then we have flight data recording and monitoring for “safety analysis purposes only”. Mindful of the previous debacles and pilots concerns we have protocols, agreements, ombudspersons, etc. and plenty of promises. But to make that work you need honourable people who recognise such agreements and will work with the local pilots’ association. In the absence of such agreements and intermediaries “they” can monitor your daily work almost in real time. It is, is it not, interesting that in a certain airline whose name can hardly be mentioned on PPRuNe - called RYANAIR - flight data is recorded but not protected by any agreement? Of course everyone knows that this very same airline would probably prefer to go into liquidation than recognise a pilots’ association (yes, I know they say you can, but you’d have to be seriously naïve to be fooled by that!). So who is going to protect this information or the pilot who falls foul of the system? And from there the disease will spread even to those areas where pilots say "that will never happen here" (as they turn their nose up at the very mention of Ryanair).
Just try getting surgeons to allow VCRs or video cameras into an operating theatre (where the level of risk is multiples of the level of risk in an aeroplane and the need for good ex poste analysis is acute). You’ll learn a few things about how to look after your interests from the reaction!
If I may say so, the person who started this thread and adds the odd cryptic comment is either young and innocent, or a fool, or just not a pilot (I suspect the latter). I do not intend this observation as an insult, but there is a need for everyone to get real about this kind of nonsense. As to the retort that these are matters of opinion, I suggest that the evidence of the past forty years makes them more an issue of fact than opinion.
Well, at least I feel better now.