Bloggsy, in a perfect world there would be no incompetents conducting any activity that could cause hazards to others. No incompetent drivers would be a good start. But, short of re-introducing the dunce's corner at school and draconian controls with frequent and rigorous examinations, we cannot totally remove incompetent people from their various endeavours.
Imagine a world in which drivers were subject to retest every year -at night, in heavy rain, in an advanced vehicle simulator. There wouldn't be nearly as many cars on the road, and the road toll would be greatly reduced. It would take a dictatorship to introduce such measures.
Or imagine an instrument rating/proficiency check for pilots, always commencing at 0200 hours on the fifth day of a long duty cycle, lasting at least six hours and requiring degraded automatics, with each pilot at the controls for, say three hours continuous. No second chances;
'not yet competent' in any exercise requiring extensive further training and a different but equally arduous scenario next week. Repeated at three monthly intervals. It would certainly get rid of incompetent pilots, but the blow out in training budget would doom it to failure. Certain lax countries would have to shut down all aviation as they could never get anywhere near such a standard. The sooner pilotless aircraft come to those countries, the safer aviation will be.
Removing EVERY incompetent pilot would still not guarantee no crashes because we always will have humans designing, building and maintaining aircraft , and Mother Nature will continue to occasionally serve up conditions that no aircraft can survive.
That will remain the case when we go pilotless, but another potential weak link in the chain will have gone the way of the radio operator, navigator and flight engineer. Not only for the economic reasons that saw these removed from the cockpit as on-board systems improved, but because the safety case will become compelling as automation approaches perfection (not that absolute perfection is ever likely).
And high rise buildings will be safe from aircraft - unless the geeks get the sh!ts with the suits on the top floor and collaborate with the other geeks to modify the program so it sends one in through the window...
Generation Y may not see fully pilotless, but I believe the next will. Face it, Bloggsy - just like the masters of the last clipper ships, we may have enjoyed the most satisfying times in the history of our craft/profession. As steam did for the sailing masters, computers may have buggered it for us personally, but the industry is already safer than it has ever been.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 11th Feb 2014 at 20:17.