GarageYears
Is it the considered opinion of the majority, that the one person who would have brought AF447 through this event was the Captain? So why bother with the other two? Were they there as highly paid seat warmers? I presume A/F figured they were competent crew.
A pertinent question - why is it assumed the Captain would have done a better job? Is there any special reason to assume the Capt has more hand-flying in cruise experience. Or did he simply have many more hours sitting in the cockpit watching the autopilot? 1st Nov 2011 11:05
Any experienced pilot will appreciate that there are fully qualified and inexperienced pilots, and fully qualified and very experienced pilots.
When I saw tech or Wx problems as a junior F/O, I wondered what 'the Old Man' would want to do about it. Later, with several thousand hours experience, I thought I knew better than he did. Later, when the whole damned aeroplane was my responsibility, I took things very seriously indeed, and was not about to trust qualified but inexperienced F/Os with my bleedin' aircraft.
No, I didn't "have many more hours sitting in the cockpit watching the autopilot", I had decades of going around the block, seeing failures both technical and of CRM. Further, I had the emotional constraint of being
responsible for the aeroplane.
NO F/O can know what that is like.
This man should not have left his aeroplane in the hands of qualified but
inexperienced pilots.
1066
Without the benefit of hindsight, most longhaul captains, that I have flown with, would have taken the same rest period if it was their sector.
IMHO it was a reasonable decision; I would almost certainly have done the same. OK we don't know his assessment of P2 and P3 from the outbound sector. In some roster patterns he may not have flown outbound with both of them.
The captain takes his/her rest when the captain deems it fit. It is the captain's decision.
His was a very, very bad decision. You do not leave inexperienced (albeit qualified) F/Os to penetrate the ITCZ.