Guppy - I submit that your correct : there is no conspiracy...that as someone said about conspiracies...'most people are too stupid to keep a big secret'. Certainly I don't don't think Airline chief pilots are above this maxim. What I do posit as theory, is that the same set of reasons that has allowed our leaders to embark on unjustified wars, the collapse of the financial system, the imprisoning of people, later exonerated on DNA evidence...are the same as why chief pilots are now systematically hiring the most inexperienced pilots they can find : Profit, Greed, Apathy, moral vacuity, fear of losing their jobs, succumbing to group think, social and peer pressures, and probably a whole host of factors that basically add up to the very worst of human qualities. Maybe in the end, machines should fly the planes.