Pilots' marital problems could be dangerous to everybody on board
 

An Australian pilot who landed a plane too fast in what an Irish air accident report described as a "serious incident" had been suffering marital problems.

The unnamed 38-year-old Australian was on his last trip for Ireland's low-cost airline Ryanair when the incident occurred on a flight between London's Stansted Airport and Skavsta near Stockholm on July 21, 2004.

The pilot had begun his descent towards the airport too late and as a result flew the Boeing 737 "outside normal operator and manufacturer's parameters" as he came in to land, according to the report.

Despite the mistake, he managed to land the plane safely with 184 passengers and five other crew members on board.

The pilot told investigators his lack of concentration at the time "was directly attributable to physiological and psychological fatigue".

He explained that he had been experiencing marital difficulties over the past six months and his family had already returned to Australia.

The pilot, who had worked for Ryanair for four-and-a-half years, admitted that he should have called in sick on the day of the flight, but decided to go to work because he did not want to let the company down.

The report said it was "fortuitous" the landing was completed safely.

Source: ABC News

And?....................What is your point, exactly?

Even if the point is a little hard to focus on, I do think that the comment is a valid post on the medical thread.

I clearly recall flying with someone that was going through difficult times, they needed a lot of support...and there was no CRM in those days.

Loose Rivets

There has been CRM since Pontius flew Brabazons.

It's just that these days it has been formalised and given a name, to generate a whole new industry.

TO

Mmm...in my young days, CRM was dodging the captain's fist.

Said to me once.

Captain: Son let me give you the definition of CRM

me:OK capt.

Captain:CRM means we are the CREW, YOU ARE THE RESOURCE AND I AM THE MANAGEMENT.

me: Oh I gotta put that on pprune!

What is my point? That there are many different factors that could influence pilot's abilities to fly safely. The most difficult thing is the impossibility to find out who is actually totally fit to do his/her responsible work and who is not. It is pretty easy to identify the alcohol intoxication (and measure it), but much harder to find an efficient marker for drug abuse, narcotics use and sleep deprivation. Then there are stresses and all kind of psychiatric disorders. It's impossible to identify it at the entrance (somebody looks weird, okay, how can you prove it that a guy has somewhat more serious problem than just a bad day?)...

Does this mean that Ryanair, in a further attempt to cut costs, have begun operating with just one pilot in the cockpit............:}

I have flown with pilots with matrimonial problems which reduced them from normally very competent pilots to guys who could not get simple things right.
On one flight offloading a mistress after two days of pilot mistakes on a ten day block resulted in the affected pilot regaining his usual efficiency.
A Captain (with three divorces and numerous children) advised me early in my career to offload any domestic crap prior to boarding the aircraft and switch to airmanship mode and stay in it until sign off.
He used to kick the bottom step of the boarding ladder and mutter.. "F... em all" engage airmanship mode and then happily climb up into his cockpit.
Probably not in the company SOPs but it worked for us and flying was never work.