Bealzebub
Correct me if I am wrong but the French documentary seemed to suggest that the unfortunate pilot was dumped at a station four hours away from his base following 12 hours duty and expected to travel back to base by bus.
If this is the case then I think the EASA operations inspectors should be looking into the matter.
On the issue of the level of ecsesabilxty to the profession I feel it has become far harder because of the amount of money required " up front" rather than thirty years ago when things could be done part time while holding down a job. Add to this the availability of unsecured credit that vanished following a well known training provider that put their graduates with an airline that once the graduates had finished their ( paid for ) line training put them on zero hours contracts and did not give them enough flying to pay the rent...... Let alone the training debt.
Some of them had to file for personal bankruptcy, little wonder the banks are now cautious about lending money for flight training.
I doubt if thirty years back I was at today's prices more than £ 12k in debt during the whole fATPL prosess.
I also think that today's glass cockpits are far less demanding to fly than the clockwork cockpit of old so this may account for the higher failure rate at the type rating that you mention.... Or having spent £150K mummy & daddy are likely to cough up for more simulator training when an airline would have given up.
Last edited by A and C; 1st Jan 2015 at 18:38.