Applying for jobs after being through an accident
 

Hi

I have a question for those who know someone or have been in accidents themselves and have applied for a job. Has being through an accident effected you from not getting a job? Or do people know if it is like a deal breaker for airliners when they are hiring pilots?

In my situation, i was involved in an accident early this year in January. I was sitting left seat together with my instructor and another student in the back, when the instructor decided to show us a manoeuvre that did not go as planned. In short, it resulted in a spin and a crash. Luckily we all survived with minor to severe levels of injuries, me being the worst injured. I ended up with 4 operations, 1 1/2 month in the hospital and 3 months at a rehab centre, followed by 6 months physiotherapy. Today I'm pretty much fully recovered and I'm already back up flying and applying for jobs. However, i am a bit worried that the accident will effect my chances of getting a job. Obviously i would be completely honest about the accident when asked if interviewed. Any inputs would be great or if there is already a similar thread please let me know!
Thanks

Why/how could it reflect on you if the instructor was flying?

Be positive, you'll be all right in a career in flying. Keep looking forwards and no looking back and learn from your instructor's decision-making.
Douglas Bader did OK after being very badly injured by an early accident that was his fault, your's wasn't.

Douglas Bader never got a job with an airline that I am aware of.

JW, you are correct so point taken, but after WW2 he joined the oil industry and ended up Managing Director of Shell Aircraft, which involved flying himself on many occasions to coordinate contracted and company-owned aircraft in support of oil and gas ventures around the world.

A student is not expected to question his instructors competence. He is not yet qualified. He is Pu/t, not P2.

But, the instructor was Captain.

Whatever happened, unless there is a suggestion that the OP deliberately overwhelmed his or her instructor and crashed the aeroplane - which seems incredibly unlikely, it is not their fault, and no reasonable employer should regard it in such light. If anything, it is a valuable learning experience likely to make somebody show particularly good safety values.

The instructor on the other hand, might have trouble.

Also - shouldn't speculate but if they were 3 POB in a typical four seat trainer (e.g. PA28) then some manoeuvres perfectly safe 2 POB are prohibited (Utility Category vs Normal Category due to position of C of G). Not really fair to expect a student to know that (depending on what ground exams they've taken); the OP may quite likely have seen the manoeuvres completed safely on a previous flight and wouldn't have known they weren't safe with a passenger in the rear.

It didn't used to be but depends on the accident - FWIW there are several pilots at my current outfit that got jobs a while back having been involved in quite serious (military) flying accidents.

Even if you were the "sole" pilot :E, if the accident was down to circumstances you couldn't forsee or control and then couldn't mitigate the consequences then I'd expect most to cut you some slack. In fact talking about the accident (but only if asked) and what you learned as a result can use up some of the interview time that would otherwise be used for awkward HR type questions.....

That's very good advice.

peterperfect:

Indeed, I helped DB push Gemini G-AMGF into our hangar once (and only once). He told me that I should make very sure that I did not get my dirty fingerprints all over his leading edges. I was 14 years old at the time and I have never forgotten it.

On the issue of whether or not a student should be prepared to question their instructor if they sense a problem, the answer is of course "maybe".

In the situation described: unless the manouevre was something like flying upside down in an aircraft that the student knew had only a gravity feed fuel system no reasonable student wanting a bit of unusual attitude experience is going to turn down the opportunity.

He may have asked "is it dangerous?" but is unlikely to have elicited a response indicating there was a fair chance of it resulting in a spin, crash & comprehensive hospitalisation.

Obviously if the instructor said, before the manoeuvre, that he didn't expect to walk away from this one then that's a different story. Not a CRM story though, just an inflight self defence lesson.

I still fondly remember unexpectedly spiral diving out of cloud at 800 ft with a startled looking instructor who had been giving me an introduction to IMC during early stage PPL. Very valuable lesson & one I've never forgotten. Suspect he hasn't either.

Good CRM for the less experienced student, once you & the instructor accept things have become a little lively, is to keep quiet while he / she concentrates on sorting their mess out. :oh:

Flying career after accident
 

I have a personal friend who was instructor in a light single which struck an undeclared winch-towing cable on climb-out, on a slightly misty morning, resulting in a crash which badly injured him and left the student virtually unharmed. He went on to fly with four different airlines over many years.

Not so - or not necessarily so.

As an experienced helo pilot used to military instructors I was doing my B rating on a Seneca with an outfit at Lydd, thankfully long gone. Next morning at LeTouquet on engine start the aeroplane began to trundle across the apron. Total brake failure. I insisted they replace the aeroplane. Why, said the instructor, we are only doing circuits and bumps, we don't need to stop so why do we need brakes. I kid you not! I had to insist. Really forcefully. It wasn't easy as I was the stude and imagined this paragon, being an instructor, must know something of what he was doing. How wrong I was. He didn't event know there were equivalent tables to see which Mobil brake fluid would do either, nor where to find them. He was a complete numptie. He later nearly killed us later doing a self let down through cloud into Headcorn which I was most uncomfortable with but thought be OK as it was on IR training - until we popped out over high ground somewhere near Cantebury in 400ft cloudbase miles from where he thought he was. I wished I had objected to that too. Stopped the cheque for that day's flying and never heard a peep!

Moral, studes, if in doubt, speak out! Instructors are not necessarily SkyGods.

For what it's worth, I've been asked in every flying job application/interview bar one whether I have ever been involved in an accident. I know of several former student's who found airline employment (or rather were found employment as payment for their silence) following landing accidents during solo and dual training at a popular professional pilot FTO.

Yours sounds as if it was an instructor issue therefore I see no reason why it should prevent you from finding a job, unless you suffer psychologically as a result, as a friend of mine did.

I have not been a professional pilot but have a lot of experience interviewing in other fields. If you are sure that you really are 100% fit psychologically and physically which is what the interviewers are going to need to explore, my advice is not to run or hide from this. Instead be upfront - after all your CV is going to show a long non flying gap which you will need to explain. Make a positive from it and show that you have learned a very important lesson. Someone who has experienced first hand the power gradient in a cockpit adversely affect safety is likely to be a more aware pilot than someone who has progressed uneventfully through training. And if you prepare for the obvious and almost inevitable CRM follow up questions such as "So what have you learned from this?" you should be in a strong position to talk from experience. Good luck.