I'm going to stick my neck on the block here, because I think perhaps FEBA's comments, although a bit blunt, might not have been completely understood, but before I do let me start with a preamble.
We have an excellent bunch of ops bods working in this country and I have had the pleasure of working with many of them. We have dedicated staff who throw their hearts and souls into the job, work to the best of their abilites and demonstrate a high degree of professionalism. However, what we don't have is an even standard of technical and aeronautical knowledge amongst those super people.
Those of you who have had to recruit and hire staff will know that there is a wide range of experience and technical knowledge ranging from very shallow, to PPL's, FAA Dispatchers, right up to frozen ATPL's and degree level candidates. We find people with years of experience in ops, street wise and great ops controllers, but lacking any real depth of technical knowledge, which can limit their ability to make the best decisions. It has also led to a general lack of trust by the aircrew in the technical competence of ops officers. The lack of a formal accreditation to a professional standard has meant that airlines have been able to hire people who don't have an adequate understanding of flight operations but who are placed in job which can affect flight safety and the commercial success of of an airline. Previously, there was no legislative requirement to train them to a given standard, pleased to say this is changing.
The way UK airlines have managed this is, and again I'm speaking generally here, is to limit the scope and authority of the ops bods. Hands up all those who have to call the Chief, Duty Pilot or Ops Manager when you have a problem?
I do think its getting better as more and more Companies are training their staff and indeed more ops bods are taking training into there own hands, but we have a way to go.
This will be case until the JAA/CAA 'require' a minimum training standard before an operations officer can be allowed to exercise operational control over a commercial operation - we ain't there yet but I hope the first steps are being taken.
Disclaimer
and please, my comments are general in nature and may not apply to you, or your airline
Last edited by no sig; 15th Mar 2003 at 22:22.