Originally Posted by
EcamSurprise
Also, this similiar incident happened at a uk airbus operator sometime last year apparently...
Just to clarify, the post that arrived just prior to yours stated correctly that the Thomsonfly incident at Bournemouth was in fact a B737, not an Airbus.
Originally Posted by
fireflybob
Are these incidents not caused partly by the diminution of basic handling skills due to the increased automation and an up and coming generation of pilots who have little or no experience of hand flying jet aircraft?
Possibly, but the truth is that everyone has bad days at the office and pilots are no exception.
I am not against use of automation but I believe this is where the root cause of the problem is. I don't blame the individuals - it is the system (or lack of it) that has produced this result.
Remember that it's not just a case of bean-counting - with increasingly crowded skies, more and more airspace is becoming RVSM, which *mandates* use of automation in order to traverse it.
Agreed entirely that there should be more focus on training handflight - especially at altitude, but the fact is that if the industry intends to continue expanding then it's going to become practically impossible to practice handflight on the line.
...given the dumbing down of basic skills the software/techie guys will seek all sorts of solution with extra warning systems I suppose.
I can speak with some authority in saying that the "software/techie guys" only solve the problems they are presented with by a design committee that includes pilots and aeronautical engineers - they don't get to specify their own remit and never have.