RAT 5 and A&C; Very well expressed thoughts and history on the decline of our industry, I shall cut and paste and fire them off to my elected rep in UK Parliament but without much hope.
Reading the postings on the recent CFITs such as AF447, THY @ AMS, Lionair and now Asiana @ SFO, there is very little use of the dreaded 'F' word.
If we can get our minds away from cultural differences and dodgy training, just remember that here in good old Blighty, where everything is tightly regulated and officially no airline staff are abused (
), I still open my copy of CHIRP to read of bad practices by CAA Regulated airlines negatively affecting both flying and ground staff.
F A T I G U E is a regularly aired complaint, despite UK FTLs, yet the corporate interests continue to overrule the basic health and safety (deliberately small font!) of the workers at the coalface and the paying public who put their money and their trust in the airlines whio carry them.
The question frequently aired in respect of the recent CFITs is "how could they be so stupid etc as to miss the IAS, AoA, performance and other cues presented just before it all went pear-shaped"?
Well is it just possible they were simply 'dog-tired' at the time, though the accident investigations will show compliance with whichever awful set of FTLs applied at the time? I bet the Fatigue Management Sytems operated by most airlines make the CEOs feel they've ticked the relevant boxes, but if a UK chief pilot can react to a pilot's complaint about running 100hrs in 28 days rolling, over a period, by suggesting he "find another contract", then we're all on our way to hell in a handcart, along with our passengers who (mistakenly) trust the systems in which they've entrusted their lives.
Try reading over the aforementioned threads and maybe the suspicion will arise that FATIGUE could be a possible explanation as to "how could they do that?". Yet once that genie is out of the bottle, the profitability of many airlines who've made their piles out of abusing their staff is then in danger.
So I have no doubt that, even if this posting gets past our very busy censor, we'll hear precious little about tired pilots, CC and engineers whilst many on the forums various will continue to muse over A/P modes and ATC procedures and rushed approaches.
Can anyone smell coffee...........?! Or are you not awake................?!
