Mr. Thrust
It is a shame you have been unable to allay my fears about traveling with CX. I am also unsure of whether you mean I or you are stirring the pot. It matters not.
As a matter of fact, I believe that the whole episode surrounding the termination of employment of your colleagues was very sad. I empathise with the people who lost their jobs, I really do – I am certain they are excellent airmen and were possibly scapegoats. Which “side” is right and which is wrong is not my business to comment on but where I trust my life and that of my family is my business. This is not meant to portray melodrama as you may see coming out of EastEnders, trust me. I am being 100% true to myself by communicating with you guys.
Please believe me, I thought very seriously about posting on this forum. I have been tempted in the past as this issue has been at the back of my mind when flying but after reading your thoughts today, I became very alarmed.
Last week, I spent 36 hours on a return trip to JFK – Monday out of HKG and Wednesday night back from JFK. Admittedly, 8 or so of those hours were with a YVR-based crew and I am not sure of their situation however the potential for some situation to develop for the balance of over 24 hours in the air is real. Maybe we had a settled and calm FD on those two sectors or maybe we were just fortunate, I don’t know. However please see it from the other side of the door too.
To an extent, you are right that those of us on the outside do not understand what is going on, but impressions are formed by what is read in the media etc. or indeed more accurately on this site. Yes, I hear you say, the forum should be for pilots only, but that doesn’t solve the problem. Sometimes it takes a person removed from the core of a situation to put over a perspective that hadn’t been previously seen. Have you ever considered during your AOA meetings/get-togethers how your actions (official or not) would affect the pax and crew behind the FD door. Probably not.
It is not possible to compare grievances between colleagues within an office environment to that of a flight deck. There is just too much at stake where you guys work.
I always thought that the reason for introducing the much-mentioned CRM to the flight deck was to compound and highlight the necessities of teamwork. That clearly is failing in its basic form when you are on duty with one of the “replacement workers”. How would an emergency or situation be handled between you if you are potentially not communicating or going in different directions so to speak. You admit yourself [the replacement workers] are a distraction.
I am certainly not stirring any pot – just voicing concerns that I now have about flying with Cathay Pacific. Up until today, I have not had any negative gut instincts about trusting the FD crew but today I have. I am very upset about it.
I have not seen many, if any, posts on this forum from your customer’s point of view – maybe because the threat to their safety has not occurred to them, or maybe they have held back as I have done until now. You may well be thinking “why does this guy not s$d off our forum”, however if you are so thinking, it should confirm to you that maybe I have a point but from an entirely different perspective than that of you and some of your colleagues.
An incident on one of your flights which was put down to friction between pilots on the FD would decimate your cause and probably your Company. From my point of view and bearing in mind what I perceive to be the current feelings in the cockpit, there is an accident waiting to happen.
Although it looks a long way off, I truly hope you can all sort it out before, but in the meantime, I have to decide what is safe for me and my family.
Best wishes to you all
HA