Quote: "
Bit like me trying to show that all airline pilots are dangerously hopeless by using the example of a dumb mistake by an inexperienced PPL."
True but the difference here is that an "inexperienced PPL" is not going to be flying a jet full of passengers. This piece was allegedly written by a "Professional" journalist not a "PPL"- although it reads like it was written by an excitable 14 year old.
......
"but the piece did not strike me as being sensationalist "
"Its wheels slammed shut as we flew faster and faster, banking right and disappearing back into cloud. Passengers fell silent. The first thought that crossed my mind was that it was a near miss - and I just hoped hard that there was no light aircraft or flock of birds in our exit path."
This is the problem with crap journalism - amateurs are are allowed to practice, and publish, whereas a Professional pilot has to achieve a (very high) standard before being allowed to practice.
Of course the consequences in each case are somewhat different, but a journalist can do a significant amount of "damage" with ill-researched and sensationalist articles which are then consumed by the masses as gospel.
I don't even know what the point of the article was driving at other than the IAA don't keep stats on go-arounds????????
A4
