Airbus Driver
I spoke with the FAA Principal Operating Inspector (POI) at the major airline I work for some insight.
We work under the HKCAD and they are privy to our training courses and all the changes that have been implemented over the last couple of years, all to try and get people through. I think there are major operation differences between a US major and Cathay Pacific one of which I believe is that we are NOT dispatched by Licensed Dispatchers and e.g. we do not check in with the company to see if we can continue a flight to our destination when crossing the N. Atlantic, as I have heard many a US flight do. Some people will unfortunately never make the grade, just like some never make it through flight school, but they are given a chance to prove themselves!
60-80% of all accidents occurs as a result of poor group-decision making, ineffective communication, inadequate leadership and poor task management and has little to do with the technical aspects of operating in a multi-person cockpit or ATC operations area.
I would change your "group" decision making to "Command" decision-making having taken into account all factors.
Is Cathay creating better Captains because they can recite from memory a dogmatic passage from an operations or systems manual?
Being able to quote the books verbatim is NOT what the company is looking for, but knowing where to find the information and how to apply it is very important.
Smarter people before me realized that our lives and families are worth more than petty politics.
Why do you think some of these decisions have been made! Would you like your family down the back when the company were not quite sure but passed them anyway?
from my personal experience as a Check Airmen is that failure rates are not entirely indicative of ill prepared candidates (as I so often read on Fragrant Harbour forum),
Well you sound a little naive if you believe everything your read on this forum!
By the way why are you shy of saying which "major" you work for, you know who we work for!!