Dozy: For example, in the case of one of the best examples of CRM there has ever been (the crash of United Airlines 232 at Sioux City), none of the crew had been personally introduced to Captain Denny Fitch - who was a DC-10 training captain who was "deadheading" on the flight - ever before. But what you hear on that CVR is the trust that all the flight crew, plus their new member, have in each other and the decisions that meant that a lot of people walked away from a crash that was likely to have killed everyone on that aircraft. What I'm trying to say is that in the airline environment, it's a regular occurrence that you'll be working with people that you haven't worked with before - that's not unusual.
oh I do understand all the logic behind the planning taking place all the time with an airline (my son had worked with LH for some years).
But one should not forget to mention in all this: Whatever decision a captain takes to get out of a difficult situation, it is in the first place
to safe his own life a nuance which seems to be a bit left outside in all these discussions
(the instinct of self preserving is the strongest, together with preserving the human race *laugh*
That he gets the applaus of the world by having saved the aircraft plus its contents is of course justified!