Rananim;
Quote:
It will only be a matter of time before the pilot exceeds the limitation to such an extent that recovery will be a matter of chance or damage or destruction will occur.
I disagree strongly.You make an assumption.Breaking company limits persistently does not necessarily lead to "damage" or "destruction".Breaking ones own limits does this.If a pilot breaks the company rules,he's a maverick,a bit of a rebel as they say.If the same pilot flies beyond his own limitations or capabilities,then he becomes unsafe.However,I am not saying that breaking company limits is not a reason for dismissal.It can be.
I agree with your assessment re "personal limits" and company limits but in an FDA Program how is one to know those personal limits and how is one to assign high risk to one operation and low risk to another if not by company limits only? I actually agree with the first poster who merely expresses what FDA Programs are all about in the first place, but that said...such limits can be exceeded for years without result but the risk is higher. The term I used for this phenomena was "stochastic" which means "a high degree of probability but with one outcome more likely than most others".
We all know pilots with great hands and feet and superior thinking skills which likely permit broader personal standards. In fact, I've seen such flying in the data...way outside the SOPs but actually flown quite beautifully...what is one to do with such data and information? We know of others who, at one time or another are less endowed but do a credible, safe job and we may know one or two who should find other work. We see all these in the data. We train rather than fire but that does not mean firing is out of the question; we have a policy for this- it's called the Safety Reporting Policy and one loses ones job for egregious, negligent or intentionally illegal acts, not for lack of competency or ability nor for SOP violations although if such violations fall into the above category, all bets are (and should be) off.
Regarding firing, (I have written this here earlier in this thread but now that it's back on track I would like to re-emphasize), we have a solid management-pilot agreement which provides for "mavericks" and others who's flying indicates untoward trends. Firing is not among them, but peer-intervention and training certainly are. As you know, the way our industry works, (like most professions) is, that almost certainly by the time a pilot is "noticed" in the data by the FDA pilots, his/her reputation is already known and flags are up, and it is no longer merely a flight safety problem but a human factors problem with much broader implications and solutions.
I hasten to add that none of this is to comment on the EZ firing; that is their own internal affair and while I have strong opinions of such use of safety data, each airline must establish what best works for them.