Career implications for pilots after an accident or incident?
 

I was speaking to a pilot the other day about the BA incident in London and this person was mentioning that if a pilot was ever involved in a accident or incident no airline will hire you? Is that a true statement?

If that's the case, on many crew application forms they ask whether if one has ever been involved in a accident or incident - what would be the whole point of disclosing then if you've got nothing to lose?

I sincerely hope that it's just an urban legend. It has to be quite a dim-witted company that discards application just because someone was involved in accident/incident which needs not to be one's fault at all. Rumour has it that the crew of the Lajes glider changed employer and I'm certain that a friend of mine got an airline job despite hitting the silk when his aeroplane shed a wing - it was maintenance fault and definitively not over-G.

So it's not true for all the airlines, but if there's just one indulging in the practice, it's one too many.

Rubbish....personally wrote off a C150 after an engine failure, got a job! BA 777 LHR guys still flying and what about "Sully" from the Hudson incident....I think he will keep his job!

Employers will generally ask you about previous incidents and accidents, but unless it was a famous, spectacular crash they will only know what you tell them. Accident data bases aren't search-able by crew names! ;)

It used to be urban legend that you had to crash an aircraft to get a Qantas interview! (As so many of the pilots we saw were getting interviews after incidents - although this probably reflects their experience level as much ass anything.)

Is it wise to conceal any incident/accident when airlines can and do ask for Licence Verification documents from CAA/FAA?

"No accidents, incidents or misconduct involving this pilot are known"..or words to that effect, are right there in black and white.

KAL won't take you if they know you have been in involved in an incident, I have been told by the captain of an aircraft that was so involved and got rejected because of it, despite no blame attributable to him.

Does anyone know about the policy at Qatar and Etihad in this regard? How would they find out in any case, other than someone being ratted out?

Can anyone here speak from personal experience?

I believe that both the FOs from the BAW38 are still flying with BA but the skipper took redundancy in the fairly recent rounds of personnel reduction. Unfortunately, said skipper has had problems in getting a flying position precisely because of being involved in the accident. Sad, but true.

I suspect it is that the insurers of potential employers now call some major shots, and public liability is a very big shot - if a company can keep it's insurance premiums down by hiring a non-accident employee, then it will. Simple economics, if not a particularly 'just' method .......