Quote:
The captain had only 340 total flying hours when he first flew the 737 and the F/O had a mere 430 hours before going on to the 737. From then on the remainder of their flying hours was on the 737. Draw your own conclusions. In other words no sound past command decision making experience to fall back on.
- as presented, this is MEANINGLESS. PLEASE do not get hung up on this quote and produce pages of nonsense
Disagree. Others would argue the suggestion of very low flying experience of basic CPL before going on to the 737 had a lot to do with the rushed behaviour of the captain that very nearly turned into disaster. Many airlines would never remotely consider hiring a pilot with less than 2000 hours unless military trained. The captain in this incident would have had only PPL and CPL command hours ie no serious command on anything except perhaps a light single and light twin while under training for his CPL. Then he hops into the RH seat of a 737 at 300 plus total hours. Not exactly the highly experienced second in command of a passenger jet the passengers would hope to have. This is the inherent risk factor endemic in many airlines now and although statistics will no doubt prove it is cost-effective, it fails to disguise the fact that captains saddled with low hour CPL first officers better not become incapacitated leaving the cadet to fly single handed.
Like the captain, the F/O in the discussion also started off with barely the CPL in the RH seat of a jet. In other words no serious decision making time with which to fall back on. His whole career so far was as a subordinate taking instructions. This showed in his failure to prevent the captain making a series of seriously poor handling decisions.