Do you think line training flights are as safe as flights operated by a normal fully qualified crew? I would say no. It is that simple. A lot of people would not voluntarily board a line training flight.
On what basis do you say they are not as safe? Just because this one turned out not to be? There are plenty of counter arguments, such as;
1. LTCs are picked for their well above average ability and knowledge. In my airline they are all within the top 10% (from the Training Manager) they show a CONSISTENTLY higher score than the average line captain in checks.
2. Due to the fact that they are training, they tend to show a greater level of monitoring of the trainees flying and are usually much more ready to take control (purely because the average line captain only takes control once in a very long while, whereas the trainer will take control much more often).
3. They have experienced much worse handling from the PF than the average line captain and have recovered the situation much more often (through necessity).
Your point about people not boarding if they knew it was a training flight is true. BUT, they would not board out of ignorance of what that actually means. Equally, if the captain told them it was his first day in command after qualifying I bet many would also want to get off. The fact is the regulator sets the hurdles which the 'trainee' must negotiate before being allowed anywhere near a flight deck with passengers and the airlines' training department ensures regulations are met. The bar has to be set somewhere, so some will have just got over it and others will have cleared it by a country mile.
So what do you do? You put in a system where you have a safety pilot and he or she is there for a reason. It is their responsibility to increase the alertness within the crew, since the line training captain cannot catch every little thing that goes wrong.
The safety pilot is there because the regulations require them to be there. They have NO training role. They are there for the first few line training sectors just incase the trainee can't hack it and has to be 'relieved'. Simple as. However, a sensible line training captain will brief them and use them as an extra pair of eyes/ ears and encourage them to speak up should safety look like being compromised. They are not there to 'catch' every little thing that goes wrong. How would they know if the training captain had missed some 'little thing'?
Lets assume the trainee can be forgiven for not monitoring the FMA and basic parameters like airspeed, should he or she even be given line training in that case? Probably not.
They wouldn't be. Do you have the slightest idea about the training that must be completed before line training? No, thought not.
In this particular incident it still seems amazing that an LTC on final approach could not monitor airspeed. It equally seems amazing that a safety pilot would not say anything. I await the report with regards these points.
I'm not familiar with the ergonomics of the 737NG cockpit as it relates to the jump seat. But the safety pilot may not have been in a position to make a useful contribution under the particular circumstances of the accident flight. To get any useful information from a speed tape you have to be able to read the numbers, which he may not have been able to do from his perch further back in the cockpit.
Incorrect, THEY (remember there are two) can easily be seen from the jumpseat.
A round dial gauge with a needle and speed bug would perhaps have afforded the safety pilot more of an opportunity to recognize and alert the crew to a slow speed situation.
Makes no difference, as the dials on a Classic are as easy to see from the jumpseat. It comes down to alertness.
PP