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Old 4th Apr 2015, 20:18
  #3089 (permalink)  
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Join Date: Apr 2015
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I still trust the pilot

I'm a passenger, so can't contribute to the technical aspects of this discussion, but I did want to add my personal view.

When I take a taxi, I trust the driver to not swerve into oncoming traffic. When I take a bus, I trust the driver. When I take a train, I trust the driver.

And when I fly, I trust the pilot. I also trust the maintenance engineers, the air traffic controllers, the manufacturers and their assembly technicians, and their subcontractors, inspectors, etc, etc. I trust all these people to have put together a package and service that will get me from A to B, safely.

This trust existed before this crash, and it exists today. I would fly Germanwings tomorrow if I had to, because I'm trust it's staffed by good people and good pilots who do a professional job.

Given enough samples and enough time, travel by any means (even walking) will encounter a fatal event. Sometimes with a technical root-cause and sometime with a human one. Internally triggered or externally. It's a statistical certainty, but you can't live your life afraid.

Flying remains incredibly safe. Things happen, rarely, and when they do we must all take a moment for those that were affected, and ask the questions that must be asked. Sometimes there are things that can make a material difference in future outcomes, but sometimes it comes down to just bad luck and statistics.

I'd love to get a flight deck tour mid-flight, but... you know... regular people are crazy, and I feel over the years people are getting even more so. Maybe people have always been crazy and it's just camera phones and youtube that now we're seeing more examples. Although it's a shame, I prefer the pilots behind a locked door.

TL;DR: I trust pilots.
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