Flight deck crew Flight Captain:
* French
* 58 years old
* Entered Air France in 1988
* Qualified on Airbus A330/A340 in February 2007
* 11,000 flight hours, including 1,700 on Airbus A330/A340
2 co-pilots:
* French
* 37 and 32 years old
* Entered Air France in 1999 and 2004
* Qualified on Airbus A330/A340 in April 2002 and June 2008
* 6,600 flight hours, including 2,600 on Airbus A330/A340
* 3,000 flight hours, including 800 on Airbus A330/A340
One question. (before I get to the main) Is there a sub culture that might view 'diverting around weather' to be'somewhat of a pussy/coward' and do you think there may have been a subconcious need for the younger pilots to 'prove we can DO THIS' and ride through the storm? In AF447 you had a very experienced pilot, close to the end of his flight career at 58 with a lot of experience
but less experienced in that particular aircraft than the copilot A situation similar to Colgan -Where the younger female copilot had much more hours on that particular type of plane than her senior, and at one point it seemed to me, was interjecting her own orders into the recovery attempt (?) based on what you guys know internally at AF is there room in the culture for a kind of conflict? i.e. The young studs wont heed the older pilot because they have more experience than him on that type or he's an old fart mired in the past? Or was it they felt compelled to fly through the storm out of some sense of deference or not to be seen as 'weak'?
... I may be grasping at straws, but that night, a bunch of other planes navigated that stretch (with diversion) but otherwise no incident..
There is a particular flaw with the human risk evaluator that, once having committed to a course of action -any action - FURTHER RISK EVALUATION STOPS. It may be appropriate, as primates swinging from limb to limb, you dont have time to rethink - but as pilots should we ever stop?
You see it at Tenerife - the Captain made up his mind to take off, and the copilot made up his mind to say nothing.. all data henceforth, was taken as added confirmation authority for a decision already made.