Originally Posted by
Band a Lot
Disturbing is the fact the pilots are assuming control and responsibility at points in time they do not have it.
Legally speaking- another person has this responsibility but numerous pilots refuse to accept this - now that is scary.
Chains of command and rules must be followed by all - by all means start a plan but know who has legal responsibility at any point and respect that and then follow their commands.
Any PIC that can not understand that should not be a PIC.
They can make requests but not make orders farmer, they must follow them.
Unfortunately this is the problem with pprune these days, a simple comment cannot be made without 50 pages of corrections and argument.
The thing is there are good and bad in every group and the Pilot community is no different. Many are bloody nice people and good managers but there are some who by the very nature of the job and their inability to think outside a checklist mentality act as though they are JC incarnate. On occasions this includes, as I've imparted before, stepping in to the ground area of responsibility and ordering in my example a bag that was rejected by ground staff at the gate to be loaded when the PIC had zero idea of the background to why and yet, arrogantly insisted on it being loaded or the aeroplane would not move and caused a delay in the process. Absolutely NOTHING to do with safety, nothing to do with anything within the PIC's responsibility whatsoever and completely overstepping the mark.
Another example, in an Asian port and an employee of the Australian carrier I was working for at the time and I heard some raised voices from the Ops office as the local carrier had asked us to transport some empty pallets (within IATA rules) to LHR. The Captain in a dismissive tone, consistent with the rest of his demeanour said "Send them on Thai" as a snide remark to the person who was obivously Thai national.
He then asked for a phone to be made available so his Second Officer could call Sydney and when the employee said "I'll check with the manager" the Capt rudely said "Why, there's a Satellite phone here for Flight Ops use" at this point I stepped in and said "Yes Captain and that's exactly what it's bloodywell for, not personal calls" (of course if the SO had asked nicely himself we would have let him use a phone in the office which we did in the end). I then imparted a few choice words about what I thought of his attitude which was bordering on racist. This is a bad example... very rare, but it demonstrates in every industry and in every workgroup there are people that don't get the norms of society and think they are a little bit above everyone else. Unfortunately, the airlines have fostered this in years gone past by pandering to certain groups. A PIC has a lot of responsibility, granted, but at the end of the day they are an employee like everyone else, nothing more, nothing less and their responsibility does have boundaries whether they choose to believe so or not. After 30+ years in the industry I find it astounding that there are people who think their responsibility for passengers starts at sign on. So, if there's a fire in the gate lounge an hour before departure, the gate staff should call the Captain is that right???