Laserguy:
Muscat which is a damn sight nearer than Abu Dhabi
Nope.
SLL-AUH 443NM
SLL-MCT 458NM
FBW:
they will NEVER learn ! They understand and see NOTHING
Given a chance, I would imagine that any country, group or company can be competent. India leads the world in many high tech areas, as a consequence of outsourcing. The systems may have issues, from the competency of the DGCA, irrelevance of the regulatory basis, caste system continuing to skew selection or training, belief in privileged status of the Captain, and many other issues, but at the end of the day, the Indians are resourceful. If they wanted to succeed, the corruption that is endemic can be overcome, and the bureaucratic incompetence can be made more irrelevant than it in fact is. Corruption and competency are hardly limited to the sub continent, it is a human condition. Humans are past masters of economy of effort, which a root of these malaises.
IR:
the pilot doesn't need a journalist to bash him - he does so perfectly well on his own accord.
The sad thing is that the pilot isn't just bashing himself up, or being bashed up by other parties, he is bashing up the aircraft, crew and passengers.
"Self-conceit may lead to Self-destruction"
Aesop (620BC - 560BC)
The Frog and the Ox
I remain impressed by the tolerance that passengers have to the decay of aviation standards, which is being overseen by organisations with vested interests at best, and disinterest at worst. ICAO, IATA, DGCA, CAA, FAA, JAA/EASA, TC, CASA, DGAC et al,: frankly you should be ashamed. The system has all the hall marks of collapse of competency yet no party takes action to preserve the passengers right to life. The passengers take responsibility for the decay as well, all individuals are quite prepared to opt to use the cheapest, nastiest operation that exists, which metaphorically is probably an AN26 operating with falsified Guinean or Swazi registration out of Kinshasa or Ouagadougou with 30% overloads and no maintenance records. If they could get away with it, that would be the standard for MOL, and Joyce.
"The greatest of faults, I should say, is to be conscious of none"
Thomas Carlyle, (1795 - 1881)