Something that was pointed out to me was the nature of the posts from people from 'Latin' backgrounds. Now, I'm no CRM expert but the person who highlighted the interesting fact to me, is, and I value his perspective. The defensive nature of some of the responses, together with their apparent macho pride being hurt, shows us that there are still some cultures, even here in the west, that have not yet solved the problems associated with constructive criticism. Considering that they involve safety critical issues is even more alarming.
Aside from the point about whether it is right or wrong to have highlighted the particular flight in question, a valuable discussion has taken place which raises the awareness for those of us who do fly these aircraft at the beginning of another northern hemisphere winter. It is indeed eye opening to read some of the comments from alleged professional pilots who appear to be unaware of the problems associated with flying surfaces which are contaminated with frost, snow or ice. I can only presume that they are either pretending to be professionals or else we do still have a very serious problem in the industry. One in particular was someone from an Eastern European airline who pointed out that they are allowed to depart with up to 3mm of ice on the wing. It seems as though the manual was translated and the context was lost during translation!
I altered the title of this thread because too may people took the rather original, rather simplistic title literally and assumed a broad brush was being applied to Iberia pilots in general. I'm sure that is not the case with a world class national flag carrier. However, that does not mean that there are individuals who are possibly going to take unnecessary risks. That could apply to any airline in the world.
The revised title still conveys the original posters alarm and concerns but isolates the pilots to a specific flight. Whether they have seen or heard about this thread or their management have questioned them about it doesn't matter. The rest of us will hopefully be just that bit more aware of another of the multitude of safety critical areas we have responsibility for.
Here we can discuss the perceptions that have been aroused by the original post and the subsequent tapes that were linked to. We all draw our own conclusions and a few even go so far as to post them for others to see. This is the information age and fighting against the current and arguing about whether any of this should be published is not going to stop it. At least here, it can be discussed amongst our peers. We try to prevent the glory seekers with no relevant background or experience from taking the limelight with posts that make us cringe by pointing out the error of their way of thinking and hopefully educating them a bit better.