KAL...accidents waiting to happen
Having flown with Korean pilots many suns ago and now " safely " retired, I have so far refrained from posting anything close to critisizing KAL. Now, with this incident and many more that have been much more serious ( but did not make it to the public fora ), I guess it's time for my 2 cents worth.
Flying in KAL was indeed very challenging and I aged tremendously during my 5 years there. You gotta watch your F/O like a hawk lest the screw ups ( missing calls, misinterpreting clearances and so many more to enumerate here without getting my b/p up the stratosphere ) get you into deep kaka. You cannot really rest in a augment crew or 3 man crew because you never know when when you gonna get a high altitude/low speed buffet because the geniuses in the pointy end have no clue about high altitude performance, autopilot characteristics and general weather avoidance and flight management. Many a times it's like a solo operations into ORD, JFK, LHR and LAX. Even some expat captains were suspect; I operated a 3 man crew flight into Europe with an expat captain ( how he got a level 6 English in Korean was beyond me ) who missed or could'nt understand most of the ATC transmisson!! Mind you, there are now many conmen fortune hunters in KAL, you may just have to live with that or live to regret that you have to be there.
You got to be very brave or foolhardy to really enjoy life in KAL. Having said that, KAL has one of the best if not the best commuting contracts around. The money ( if it's tax free ) was good, the travel benefits and dead headings were excellent, free food coupons ( sic! ) etc