Newer pilots are being put on the line knowing how to push buttons rather than fly a plane. Seems like it was Bombadier/Honeywell that was starting to address this problem. While planes have been upgraded to make them safer, it seems humans are getting left out of the loop and in a bad situation because they can't tell what an automated system has done to a point, they may have a problem trying to get out of it. That being said, a few things really caught my attention that seem to have been slowly creeping in.These are not new but need a refresher every now and then. Well, there are good comments here and good points in the article and we will each glean something out of them. They may take the official blame with a "pilot error" conclusion, but for many of them it won't be their fault. When it does (and that may be what we're beginning to see in these 50+ incidents), those poor men and women just won't have the wherewithal to take the actions necessary to save the day. But it will happen to an unfortunate few. Luckily, most pilots will successfully complete a routine career with minimum damage to their body and/or ego, having never experienced a moment where they must face their lack of knowledge and understanding.
Those older aircraft bring their own set of problems of course, and the maintenance people are less qualified to deal with them than their predecessors. As bad as it may be with US airlines, I have a feeling this is especially true with so many small airlines that are popping up everywhere, using old aircraft that the "big boys" have left out in the desert. Instead, airlines demand aircraft that use computers to replace the pilots' missing knowledge and problem-solving abilities. But every penny must be pinched, so that's not possible. (As a teacher, I especially like that last one.) Both pilots also learned that you do not want to make your instructor/examination/chief pilot look bad, so they pretty much stopped asking questions or going beyond the curriculum requirements.įaced with a workforce of declining abilities, the airlines should be spending MORE on training. Time and again, when they asked a question, the instructor told them (1) I don't know, (2) there's no time to get into that, or (3) you don't need to know the answer because the airplane will know. They both told me how frustrated they were with the system at their respective airlines. I have spoken at length to a couple of pilots - one a former classmate of mine - about their airline training programs. (They may still be smarter than the average person, but that's not much of a compliment.) There's not as much need to, since the aircraft's computer-based systems are responsible for monitoring themselves without pilot intervention.
I would seriously doubt whether today's average pilot understands their aircraft, or basic aeronautics, as well as pilots did just 20 or 30 years ago. This is especially true in the technical fields, of which aviation is a part. Everywhere you look, our society has dumbed things down to the point that very few people are as qualified as their predecessors were.