Lessons in Life
We, as pilots, live with our lives in the hands of other people. ATC, refuellers, LAMEs, F/As etc etc…...we just can’t and shouldn’t do it all by ourselves. And the most important people in our professional lives are other pilots. The ones in our crew room, the last guy who flew your aircraft, your F/O or Captain, the young guy looking over the fence who’ll one day be a 2 stripe junior F/O.
Any time, absolutely any time that you put ourself first and forget whatever euphemism for “solidarity” you feel comfortable with…then you are eroding the entire basis of our profession. Maybe not immediately and not even noticeably. It’s just like people stealing bricks from the Parthenon. Of course as individuals they can put themselves and their selfish needs first but eventually the whole thing comes down.
That’s why 1989 sits right up there in the minds of many. The vast proportion of AFAP members (whether they be ill-led, stubborn, foolish, naïve, wise, principled or dead ignorant) stuck together. Then and since. IN a hundred airlines across the globe. Not always perfectly and not always without sacrifice. Most never actively thought of the need for “sticking together” before 1989…but a lot learned that when the chips are down, your fellow pilots, warts and all, are all you’ve got.
In the case of Ansett…the edifice started crumbling only a few years after 1989 (helped by “me first” management) and finally came down in 2001. Inflated salaries, foolish route expansion strategies, horrible mix of types etc etc. Some post 1989 pilots at Ansett have learned this simple Lesson in Life the hard way.
This Lesson wasn’t invented in 1989…it was probably passed down to us pilots as part of the general legacy of all working people. Paid for in blood sometimes. But if TESNA has a future it will be one where “all for one and one for all” is the way things are and those who can’t hack this should go somewhere else. You start a new airline with even one or two “me first” bad apples and it hasn’t a prayer. If you don’t have decent CRM outside of the cockpit you sure won’t have it inside. And then really nasty things can happen.
Cheers
Sherm