SIC: Good points about somebody connecting an Airbus aircraft to being pilotless.
D246: One major reason as to why a large US regional airline (which only operates CRJs) has hired pilots with only about 500 hours is that they pay nothing during training, not even per diem, unless this changed. Some of this might be in order to comply with a....eh...'cross-gender' quota
. After training, their pay as First Officer qualifies them to use govt. food coupons so they can feed a wife or baby at home. Apparently, pilots with a much better chunk of experience refuse to work for such demeaning and insulting conditions during Initial Training. This is exactly what one of their Line Check Airmen told me while we waited in line for a burrito at a major airport in the "Great Lakes" region. Bean counters at their best- no, not Taco Bell-I mean corporate 'integrity', or the lack thereof
.
Boeing has probably had its share of crews not understanding or allowing the automation (partial auto. can be worse) to be the boss.
Airbus alone had four or five accidents which I can name by place or airline, and misunderstandings or non-standard procedures (over-confidence) etc led to tragedies. This includes the A-330 in Toulouse, with a factory demonstration pilot in command.
To second the vote of Commander Danny Pprune, not only do the 'leaders' of many airlines understand the cost of everything and the value of nothing, they are well-insured against a major "hull loss", and they are never found liable after the FAA and the NTSB are finished with months of playing "Monday morning {football} quarterback". Look at what the previous "Freight King" got away with at Willow Run years ago (YIP). Somebody was allegedly paid off numerous times, or certain "field reps" received some free type ratings to buy them off.
A US company suffered quite a string of accidents over several years {narrow but mostly widebodies}, plus or minus some well-known MD anomalies (possibly misplaced logbook pages?...I don't know about there, but it happened after the TWA B-727 flown by 'Hoot' Gibson rolled over Michigan in the 70s....the pages with previously documented UNcommanded leading edge problems turned up decades later...based upon "Aviation Week & ST"...very strange coincidence?) and kept their hull loss insurance. This latest incident can not be blamed on the pilots, apparently. This might prove to be unfortunate for one or two major corporate departments. What is the duration for the warranty on landing gear?
