Higs - too sensitive. I'm also an 'overseas pilot' currently, although I do have an Australian ATPL and I was trained here.
What I object to is the concept that some highly paid executive thinks it's acceptable to employ pilots from countries where they just don't train pilots properly and the airlines there have mediocre to appalling safety records. I'm not talking about the UK or Canada but places that regularly crash aircraft and kill people. I find it doubly-galling that the reason those executives do so is solely to put pressure on current or future pilots of that airline to accept ever-diminishing salaries.
Australia has a good safety record for a reason. Indonesia, Botswana and Uzbekistan don't. Not Politically Correct? Too Bad. Lives are at stake quite literally. It's ever so easy to fast-track some poorly-trained and lowly-paid Uzbekistani pilot with an Australian licence and let him loose. All it needs is some employer clout in Canberra and less than diligent C&T Captains (motivated by 'hefty' allowances but pressured by management).
This exact scenario happened with one overseas airline I was associated with (in one of the world's most affluent countries) and the results were a disgrace. Another major low-cost airline has used similar techniques and fortunately hasn't (by pure luck) had fatalities, but that in itself doesn't justify the way it hires, 'trains' and overworks its pilots. That airline is a ticking time-bomb. It's also the one that too many young, new executives like to use as their datum for a successful airline.
And oh how the media howl (and quite rightly) when some of there own are killed, as happened in the Indonesian 737 abysmal approach some time ago. I have seen operational decisions from crews in this part of the world that defy belief. We all make mistakes but the training we had in Australian GA/military and some airlines taught us well how to try to minimise these mistakes. That training and discipline does not exist in so many foreign jurisdictions it is a real concern - and the accident statistics prove that.
So Higs, you can be offended all you want but the thought of dodgy pilots from dubious backgrounds overseas being imported purely to bolster some executives already bulging wallet is more than offensive, it's stomach-churningly sickening.
Most certainly Not Impressed.
