Superpilot- an excellent, concise summary of our profession`s ills.
Professor Rubik- I agree and empathize with most of what you`ve said, but experience goes hand in hand with operational standards and I think it is perfectly fair, in fact essential, that its absence is raised as a safety issue.
Most turbojet aircraft are certified for two pilots because the workload is considered too burdensome for the average crew, especially during an emergency. Now, clearly we must all gain experience and there are accommodations for this in the training specified by CAAs around the world, but let`s be absolutely clear; it was never intended that this would be abused to the point where an almost perpetual state of training exists in certain airlines. This is pure abuse of a regulation that was solely intended to bridge the experience gap, not entrench it. In my opinion it is also willfully negligent and it beggars belief that it has still gone unchecked by either the CAA and unchallenged by competitors.
Systemic and technological improvements are largely offsetting the effect of inexperienced crews, industry best practices and the reliability and redundancy of modern aircraft accomodate them, but their weakness is obvious and lies dormant until illuminated by circumstances. Where it comes apart, where it has come apart, is when an insidious problem, a major malfunction or series of them overwhelms the experience and ability of the crew. This could be a training captain and inexperienced first officer or two inexperienced or poorly trained crew members, in either case the negligence of the operator and to some extent the authority is to blame.
Over the past few years, criminal culpability has begun to be apportioned after an accident and I just hope that the industry, specifically the accountable managers and CAAs concerned, wake up before they are woken up by legal action. Sadly, I think it may take a major accident or accidents for things to change. Colgan, Turkish and Air France are three accidents that demonstrate the deadly effects of poor training and experience.
Last edited by Globalstream; 25th Sep 2012 at 14:01.