Streamline
24th Aug 2000, 16:44
Aviation Medicine at it’s best.
Many Airline pilots are married or choose another form of relationship, sometimes at their spouses despair with their aeroplane. But not in this case, this story is about professional ethics, a strong drive between the ears of any pilot who thinks about what he is doing.
Marriage implies that, the possibility of a divorce is always around the corner. To put it in medical jargon: testosterone and progesterone are not always compatible.
But Doctors and smiling lonely housewives seem to be compatible, if the doctor chooses your lady’s side, your career may be finished. Mentally, divorce is a difficult period, definitely if you are the one left behind and there are kid’s involved.
Of course, it is the right of the Airline management to ask themselves, can this guy still focus on the ball ? Is it safe enough to let him fly ? I can tell you from personal experience and from what I have been told by my friends who went trough the same roller-coaster, that, if you are the type of guy who really loves to fly, then your job will keep you on the runway. You will perform as good and even better then before, because, focussing on your job pulls you trough the divorce better than anything else possibly could.
The periods between your flights are of course the most difficult ones. Your emotions during these periods may be overwhelming, but they DO NOT give any valid indication on your capability to put your marbles back in your pocket once you put on your uniform. Definitely not when the guy has never had any professional problems before and is experienced.
I think it is important for airline medical staff to co-ordinate and eventually consult with the chief-pilot to focus on the aforementioned aspect and discuss the problem with the pilot concerned. Rule number one must be, take your time, do not rush things, in other words, GET PROPPER AND OBJECTIVE INFORMATION. It is also important that the pilot feels that he will not lose the support of the management during this difficult period.
If you as a pilot feel you are not fit to fly, you must tell them. I am sure they will appreciate that you are being honest about it. An experienced and professional airline pilot is a valuable asset to any professional company, it takes many years to train a good commander, they know that too.
Doctors for some reason, feel the urge to prescribe medication all the time. They sometimes forget that the body as well as the psyche have an amazing capability to cope with diseases and psychological stress by themselves, definitely in a healthy body which most of us have.
Otherwise we would not be pilots after all, or something must have been dramatically wrong with the selection process in this high salary versus responsibility business. A guy who is chronically depressed does not belong in this business medication or not. But we may all be knocked of our pedestal once in a while, statistically it happens 3 to 4 times in a lifetime, NO REASON TO LOOSE YOUR LICENCE for that.
Pulling a pilot off a flight, is of course the zero risk option but may cause serious damage to the pilot concerned, definitely if combined with the divorce. If you are the GMO and take the option to pull him off the flight, you also take away the thing that kept him upright. If you do not care about this, than just go ahead and flush him. Then try to find a diagnoses that is difficult to contradict and kick him out of the company, do not forget to tap yourself on the shoulder.
Then force the wicked pilot to resign and inform the CAA to make sure he does not pop up again, of course if he does pop up again, talk to the lady concerned and try to find a story to finish him off completely, she will be glad to co-operate, remember she dumped him before, for a four bar model instead of three. Then look in the mirror if you still can look straight and tell yourself “job well done, we are a big company and there are enough pilots who want to fly for us. Let the next come in”.
But what happens? Another mayor airline hires the guy again, because of course, he is a very bad pilot, that’s why you hired him in the first place. The selection committee even recommended him. Because you do not want to lose face, you advise the CAA of that other country how dangerous the guy is. In doing so you get a serious backfire and the risk of a diplomatic conflict and on top of that you have now embarrassed your own company and own CAA.
To make the story complete, you also gave the ex-wife a copy of the medical file so she can finish the divorce-job in court in her favour. Of course did you not forget to sponsor the guy’s ex-wife so she can now prevent him from seeing his kids. If he then starts to be pissed off and refuses to go on his knees and beg: “ Baby can I please see my kids”, then you can cry out loud: “ EUREKA I found a symptom that confirmed the original diagnoses”, and you can then sleep back on both your ears.
This had of course nothing to do with a medical issue, the pilot concerned had pointed out that some SOP could be illegal and we can not have anybody say that, can we! A couple of months later the Director of Operations get sacked as well. But officially, high ranked managers retire with their pockets full of money, because they know too much. Maybe they should give the position to the wicked pilot, he started to roll the ball anyway. Apparently he did know what he was talking about.
Professional ethics may cause a behaviour that leads people to think you lost your marbles, it all depends on the environment you work in. It’s called company culture and has nothing to do with FAR, JAR, ICAO SARPS, BOEING or AIRBUS recommended practices.
To put it in a nutshell: A symbioses of commercial and safety interest is simply impossible if the brain of the Airline is only money driven and the pilots are afraid to speak up. It takes courage to hire a D.O. who dares to defend his pilots as well as the commercial arguments. It will however encourage pilots to speak up if something is not safe or could be done better if they know their D.O. has the courage to swim upstream if needed. But how do you know the D.O. will do just that ? The answer is, you never know, unless he has done it before, and knows all about it, personal experience beats every management book.
A D.O. constantly walks around with the rope around his neck, because he sets the standards, i.e. the fine balance between commercial and safety interest, it will not work if your brain is only money driven and politics set the scene. Setting up a professional environment will therefore reduce the risk’s he takes, remember, he too leans on the professionalism of his pilots You can not learn the aforementioned attitude from any book, it’s embedded in the personality. But what type of personality fit’s the best ?
The friendly to everybody type is probably doing the wrong thing, politically he takes no risk but no respect either. Being an outspoken type of guy, so his staff knows what he want's is probably the least damaging way, but only the guy who really knows what he is talking about can do that. This brings us back to square one, he should know his job and set up a team that more or less thinks like himself, but a team that will speak up against him if needed.
If you are the boss and have decided not to hire a guy like this, stick with the GMO you have, he will take care of your problem if a pilot dears to speak up in the interest of safety and risks to embarrass the D.O. Of course, now you have set the scene that will prevent valid and important information to stay below the surface. Information that one day may safe many lives and money, and last but not least, a lot of embarrassment
The moral of the story is: If you made a blunder and you try to cover things up, it will start to smell.
By the way, the position of D.O. is still vacant.
Want to try ? No guts no glory ?
------------------
Smooth Trimmer
[This message has been edited by Streamline (edited 27 August 2000).]
Many Airline pilots are married or choose another form of relationship, sometimes at their spouses despair with their aeroplane. But not in this case, this story is about professional ethics, a strong drive between the ears of any pilot who thinks about what he is doing.
Marriage implies that, the possibility of a divorce is always around the corner. To put it in medical jargon: testosterone and progesterone are not always compatible.
But Doctors and smiling lonely housewives seem to be compatible, if the doctor chooses your lady’s side, your career may be finished. Mentally, divorce is a difficult period, definitely if you are the one left behind and there are kid’s involved.
Of course, it is the right of the Airline management to ask themselves, can this guy still focus on the ball ? Is it safe enough to let him fly ? I can tell you from personal experience and from what I have been told by my friends who went trough the same roller-coaster, that, if you are the type of guy who really loves to fly, then your job will keep you on the runway. You will perform as good and even better then before, because, focussing on your job pulls you trough the divorce better than anything else possibly could.
The periods between your flights are of course the most difficult ones. Your emotions during these periods may be overwhelming, but they DO NOT give any valid indication on your capability to put your marbles back in your pocket once you put on your uniform. Definitely not when the guy has never had any professional problems before and is experienced.
I think it is important for airline medical staff to co-ordinate and eventually consult with the chief-pilot to focus on the aforementioned aspect and discuss the problem with the pilot concerned. Rule number one must be, take your time, do not rush things, in other words, GET PROPPER AND OBJECTIVE INFORMATION. It is also important that the pilot feels that he will not lose the support of the management during this difficult period.
If you as a pilot feel you are not fit to fly, you must tell them. I am sure they will appreciate that you are being honest about it. An experienced and professional airline pilot is a valuable asset to any professional company, it takes many years to train a good commander, they know that too.
Doctors for some reason, feel the urge to prescribe medication all the time. They sometimes forget that the body as well as the psyche have an amazing capability to cope with diseases and psychological stress by themselves, definitely in a healthy body which most of us have.
Otherwise we would not be pilots after all, or something must have been dramatically wrong with the selection process in this high salary versus responsibility business. A guy who is chronically depressed does not belong in this business medication or not. But we may all be knocked of our pedestal once in a while, statistically it happens 3 to 4 times in a lifetime, NO REASON TO LOOSE YOUR LICENCE for that.
Pulling a pilot off a flight, is of course the zero risk option but may cause serious damage to the pilot concerned, definitely if combined with the divorce. If you are the GMO and take the option to pull him off the flight, you also take away the thing that kept him upright. If you do not care about this, than just go ahead and flush him. Then try to find a diagnoses that is difficult to contradict and kick him out of the company, do not forget to tap yourself on the shoulder.
Then force the wicked pilot to resign and inform the CAA to make sure he does not pop up again, of course if he does pop up again, talk to the lady concerned and try to find a story to finish him off completely, she will be glad to co-operate, remember she dumped him before, for a four bar model instead of three. Then look in the mirror if you still can look straight and tell yourself “job well done, we are a big company and there are enough pilots who want to fly for us. Let the next come in”.
But what happens? Another mayor airline hires the guy again, because of course, he is a very bad pilot, that’s why you hired him in the first place. The selection committee even recommended him. Because you do not want to lose face, you advise the CAA of that other country how dangerous the guy is. In doing so you get a serious backfire and the risk of a diplomatic conflict and on top of that you have now embarrassed your own company and own CAA.
To make the story complete, you also gave the ex-wife a copy of the medical file so she can finish the divorce-job in court in her favour. Of course did you not forget to sponsor the guy’s ex-wife so she can now prevent him from seeing his kids. If he then starts to be pissed off and refuses to go on his knees and beg: “ Baby can I please see my kids”, then you can cry out loud: “ EUREKA I found a symptom that confirmed the original diagnoses”, and you can then sleep back on both your ears.
This had of course nothing to do with a medical issue, the pilot concerned had pointed out that some SOP could be illegal and we can not have anybody say that, can we! A couple of months later the Director of Operations get sacked as well. But officially, high ranked managers retire with their pockets full of money, because they know too much. Maybe they should give the position to the wicked pilot, he started to roll the ball anyway. Apparently he did know what he was talking about.
Professional ethics may cause a behaviour that leads people to think you lost your marbles, it all depends on the environment you work in. It’s called company culture and has nothing to do with FAR, JAR, ICAO SARPS, BOEING or AIRBUS recommended practices.
To put it in a nutshell: A symbioses of commercial and safety interest is simply impossible if the brain of the Airline is only money driven and the pilots are afraid to speak up. It takes courage to hire a D.O. who dares to defend his pilots as well as the commercial arguments. It will however encourage pilots to speak up if something is not safe or could be done better if they know their D.O. has the courage to swim upstream if needed. But how do you know the D.O. will do just that ? The answer is, you never know, unless he has done it before, and knows all about it, personal experience beats every management book.
A D.O. constantly walks around with the rope around his neck, because he sets the standards, i.e. the fine balance between commercial and safety interest, it will not work if your brain is only money driven and politics set the scene. Setting up a professional environment will therefore reduce the risk’s he takes, remember, he too leans on the professionalism of his pilots You can not learn the aforementioned attitude from any book, it’s embedded in the personality. But what type of personality fit’s the best ?
The friendly to everybody type is probably doing the wrong thing, politically he takes no risk but no respect either. Being an outspoken type of guy, so his staff knows what he want's is probably the least damaging way, but only the guy who really knows what he is talking about can do that. This brings us back to square one, he should know his job and set up a team that more or less thinks like himself, but a team that will speak up against him if needed.
If you are the boss and have decided not to hire a guy like this, stick with the GMO you have, he will take care of your problem if a pilot dears to speak up in the interest of safety and risks to embarrass the D.O. Of course, now you have set the scene that will prevent valid and important information to stay below the surface. Information that one day may safe many lives and money, and last but not least, a lot of embarrassment
The moral of the story is: If you made a blunder and you try to cover things up, it will start to smell.
By the way, the position of D.O. is still vacant.
Want to try ? No guts no glory ?
------------------
Smooth Trimmer
[This message has been edited by Streamline (edited 27 August 2000).]