There are a handful of posters who just can't help but defend completely this incident, and the Atlas incident before it.
There's not one post in this thread defending this incident. What are you talking about?
It is the same group defending the same utter lack of airmanship, which makes me ponder two ideas: either they are equally inept and are being defensive, or they perceive the comments by others as an attack on the US as a whole and are being defensive about that instead. There is a paranoid culture within the US which afflicts a great many, though I hasten to add not all, of its people in that any criticism of anything which happens to be American is taken as an attack on everything American, and so any kind of criticism is tantamount to a terror attack. I wonder if this bunker mentality is what is behind this defence of the indefensible, given that the very same individuals are only too pleased to condemn anyone from any other country?
I'm starting to see what this is really about for you. A little stereotyping and political anger there.
I don't think anyone was being nationalistic or paranoid until you came along and wrote this nonsense. In fact, the posts attacking these guys earlier that I was complaining about were from Americans (or so they say). I hope you're not making assumptions about where I'm from because I guarantee you'd be surprised. These are anonymous forums and a lot of people don't put their true location and nationality in their profiles.
I actually find it quite disturbing that so many so called professional pilots are so quick to condemn their colleagues without a trial. Sure it's embarrassing when stuff like this happens but this witch hunt attitude won't help.
Are you saying that landing at the wrong airport, and stopping just short of a cliff through luck rather than judgement, is OK, and nothing more than a screwup? And are you also saying that any incident that is non-fatal is acceptable.
---no one said this but...the fact that no one was hurt and nothing seriously damaged makes an enormous difference. Call it luck after a screw up if you will but it still makes a difference. Not "OK" or "acceptable" but a difference. If it didn't we'd all have been hanged years ago.
It seems to me these forums are a place disgruntled and bitter old pilots go to try and get even with all those seemingly more successful people who've wronged them their whole lives....pathetic.