With only 2 manufacturers and the extremely rigourous certification procedure for civvy aircraft types, then I'm not too fussed about the lowest bidder malarkey.
If I was in the military then I think I'd be more worried about that!
The discussion about whether it is easier to train someone from scratch or to retrain is valid, however, most SOP's aren't a million miles from each other, at least not amongst the major European carriers. Even if you do revert to an earlier method, it should still be safe enough, though obviously not ideal in anyway.
A 250hr pilot from an integrated course has never really been in total command of an aircraft or had to make the major decisions themselves until they find themselves in the LHS of a high performance public transport jet.
Sometimes you do have to throw the book away and revert to your own experience. It isn't often fortunately, but this incident has highlighted that even in a relatively simple emergency, things sometimes don't run smoothly for whatever reason.
I assume these will be investigated thoroughly and that recommendations and changes to the working practises will be made to stop this sort of thing happening again.
I'm not going to get into a discussion about Line training flights. At my first airline job I was let loose after less than 20. There are other comments that could be made, especially when you look at home RYR pilots are renumerated before their final line check. Were one to be uncharitable, then you could argue that RYR want as many Line Training flights as possible, though I think that is total nonsense.
I have no concern about RYR pilots really. I know many and the vast majority are top notch and if they don't see a problem, then neither do I. However, this incident and a couple of others have raised a few questions about some of the practises in RYR.
I'm not RYR bashing, that is boring and unfair, I'm just having a discussion about issues that I find interesting.