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So now we have the opportunity to compare high calibre, experienced and well trained pilots with their less fortunate colleagues who share their flight decks with their poor training and inadequate safety cultures. Along with the crew of the US Airways airliner, which survived a ducking in the Hudson River, this BA crew demonstrated some fast and sound thinking when faced with a situation they had almost certainly never trained for. In doing so they demonstrated just how important the human input is, even on the most automated aircraft. The training and experience they did possess lead to a decision which probably saved many lives, both on the ground and in the aircraft. Just two examples of poor
airmanship and questionable safety cultures are the poorly paid, hard
worked and inexperienced crew of the Continental Airlines subcontractor,
Colgan Air, who crashed their plane into a house in Buffalo New York. Then we have the crew of a Turkish airlines Boeing 737, who allowed their sound and functioning aircraft to slow until it crashed during approach to Amsterdam’s Schipol, simply because they were not paying attention. Of course pilots make mistakes;
all humans do, but by recognising that fact, training for it and putting
procedures in place to prevent mistakes from multiplying has made
airline flying safe for many years. This requires a sound safety culture
and considerable discipline. Sadly, in some airlines, cost rules over training standards and a good safety culture. In some companies (and countries) a robust safety culture is simply not in place. I offer some truly appalling examples in my forthcoming book. Until then, take a look at Airsafe.com and read the national and airline statistics. You will see clear patterns. True, as Mr Disraeli said, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” Of course view this data with care but it shows that some airlines and nationalities have appalling accident levels. I made myself unpopular in February last year by writing a column in the Independent newspaper about the Turkish Airlines Amsterdam crash, in which I pointed out that the company had the worst accident rate in Europe. This information came from hard academic data and was not my opinion, simply fact. Some airlines crash more than others; so before you buy a ticket on one, it may be worth asking why. I intend to explain more fully in my book, “Anatomy of an Air Crash – How Culture Decides your Fate.” |