PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Dublin: 2 x RYR in contact during taxi. Both damaged.
Old 13th Oct 2014, 08:19
  #70 (permalink)  
Aluminium shuffler
 
Join Date: Sep 2013
Location: UK
Posts: 730
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Pig, you are not aloe in your belief that experience equals safety and inexperience equals risk. It is a misguided principle, though. Firstly, in this instance, there has been no evidence of the levels of experience of the pilots involved in the DUB bump, so accusations are premature. Secondly, to use the example others are using of the 757 missed app, that Captain as experience, though perhaps not massively on type, so even if the FO had been very green, as has bizarrely been suggested as some sort of mitigation of gross mishandling by the commander, then he should have coped. I suspect other factors will be shown to be significant in that case.

Experience measure in hours is next to meaningless - what counts is experience of things going awry, be it bad weather, tech problems, dodgy ATC and so on. Further, experience can improve an individual pilot's capability as his/her career progresses, but we all start with varying aptitude and so an experienced mediocre pilot may still be weaker than a cadet with very high aptitude - I have seen that often enough. Further, with modern airlines' work levels, with experience comes age and fatigue, so while I consider myself reasonably experienced and well quipped with good airmanship, operating in a flexible style somewhere between the old and new schools, I am finding I am making more little slips of late due to error or omission which the younger, sharper FOs are picking up. Nothing major, but a disturbing trend I put down entirely to fatigue, and not complacency or a lack of knowledge or training. Stating that an experienced pilot is safer than a newish one is fallacy.

Now, we know DUB was dark and foggy at the time of this bump, and we also know that it can be very hard to see an aircraft from astern at night even in clear conditions with all its lights on. Factor in ATC telling you to move forward and turn onto a side link, the barely visible aircraft ahead having its lights mixed up with apron and terminal lights (look at a map to see the relative angles and the leading aircraft's background) and partially blocking the way because it may be holding further back than anticipated and it becomes easy to imagine how this could happen. This happens to very experienced crews and newbs just as easily. DUB taxiways are a disastrous design and ATC can be quite stretched and rushed, giving excessively complex instructions and clearances that are inappropriate or too tight. It's a recipe for this sort of incident.
Aluminium shuffler is offline