Ethnic Culture on Flight decks -Arrogance or Stupidity
A recent seemingly minor event had me thinking about the vagaries of cockpit etiquette where ethnic culture becomes a tricky issue. The crew concerned were of differing nationalities. Both were tired after several night sectors and during the cruise in the early hours of the morning, the first officer was unable to stifle a yawn.
The captain erupted, demanding the first officer apologize for yawning. In the captain's culture, yawning in front of a senior ranking person was inexcusable. Of course the captain was quite arrogant and the first officer objected strongly to the accusation he was being disrespectful.
On another occasion, two pilots under training for commands complained to their superiors that their class-room instructor had shown disrespect for their ethnic culture because he had placed some briefing notes on the desk for them to pick up, rather than physically offering the notes to each person personally by hand.
In each case, the yawning first officer and the ground instructor were Westerners not versed in the cultures of the aggrieved. Clearly it is difficult for crew members to remember every minor facet of culture that could offend on the flight deck. After all, all over the world it is common practice to have foreign captains operating with local first officers and vice versa. Ethnic culture can become a potential minefield for all concerned and it doesn't take much for prejudices to occur. For many, their culture transcends common-sense flight safety, as we have seen in several tragic accidents.
A part way solution may be in the induction phase of a new pilot joining an airline. That includes cabin crew as well as flight deck crew. Newcomers could be briefed on local cultural mores that could show up on flight decks. But it goes both ways and this must be understood by management.
It is quite ridiculous and unacceptable in flight safety terms to claim that a yawn from fatigue is disrespectful. I wonder how many more of these irritants occur on airline flight decks under the guise of ethnic culture but which in reality are excuses for arrogance and stupidity?
Last edited by Tee Emm; 27th Dec 2014 at 11:48.