The document highlighted major risk factors, including lax discipline and poor cockpit communication.
Man alive that is bad. My copilots will ask me if it is ok to send a text when we are on the ground and the after shut down checklist is complete. Answer " sure thing, thanks for asking" .
Are you serious?? Please give some clues as to what airline so I can avoid it!
Perhaps the enquiry should be reworded as to which airline DOES NOT.
I try not to crack the whip much, it's just not my style. But it seems to me that unauthorized cockpit use of cellphones, laptops and tablets is making a comeback after a brief respite in the wake of the Northwest 188 MSP overfly.
Just as I push the power up for a heavy crossing takeoff, I've had the other pilot at the controls whip out his iPhone and start recording video 'for his son'. Many folks seem to think it is ok to text while I'm taxiing even though it is explicitly prohibited several places in our pubs. And, turning into the blocks some will have their face buried in their phone messages instead of looking out. If I try subtlety and ask 'clear right?' they say 'I already called it clear, maybe you didn't hear me' and keep typing a reply heads down on the phone.
Anyway, I try to dissuade my colleagues from erroneous behavior that might lead to undesirable outcomes (or whatever the correct warm and fuzzy CRM terminology calls it). Some of these folks will absolutely pitch a fit if you attempt to offer corrective advice.
A few years ago we had some remaining 'cowboys' in the left seat who wouldn't do the paperwork on a crossing and only did checklists when an LCA was onboard. Over time they were retired or, in some cases, weeded out by the training department.
For a while it was great in my opinion, things were pretty much standard and by the book. You could hop in a plane with folks you had never met and take the crew around the world, making those minor adjustments to each other's workflow. You knew what to expect and what was expected.
Now it seems that some folks act like flying the plane is a minor distraction to their video game or magazine reading. Maybe this attempt to 'look cool' is a legacy of the cowboys who viewed themselves as renegades of the FOM.
And, the folks I work with are talented and competent, experience levels are still high on my fleet. I'd be happy to swap seats will almost anyone.
But at times I wish they would just put down the damn iPhone and help me fly the plane.
