Ladies and Gents - This is the Captain - Sorry about that landing..
Met a passenger (experienced in aviation) at the airport from a 737 flight between A and B in Australia. Although weather calm the final approach was marred by heavy over controlling by the PF and a high sink rate on very short final culminated in an extremely hard touch down which caused a few pax to squeal in alarm. Nothing new and probably someone on line training?
The question arises:
Would it be considered good manners or even sensible public relations, for the captain to make a brief apology over the PA for the heavy landing? Or is it best ignored and hope people won't remember?
Although as pilots we know that heavy landings are part and parcel of new pilots experience during line training, it is a fact rightly or wrongly that many passengers judge an airline by the quality of the landings. Smooth touch down makes passengers happy while a bastard of a landing upsets the nervous nellies who will choose the other airline for the next trip. It may not be fair to judge an airline by it's landings but some people do. A short apology by the captain regardless who did the landing, may sooth a few heartbeats and leave a nice impression.
Any thoughts?