Trusting pilots with our lives

[question everything]

When we board a flight, if we even think about it, we are concerned about mechanical problems.

We take it for granted that we put our lives in the hands of pilots. This trust was shaken five years ago, when Colgan flight 1407 crashed in upstate New York. We late found out that there were pilot errors. We found out that one of the pilots took an early flight from Seattle without much sleep. We found out that pilots were paid $25,000 annually that they had to grab as many flights as they could, had to find cheap living facilities any place that they could.

No, the salary is not a factor - I don't think so - with the recent crash on the French Alps. But I was just thinking on how we take for granted that we trust our lives to pilots. And hope for the best.

I doubt that much has changed since then. The way airlines have merged and squeezed everyone - crew. passengers, seats - except for top executives, I wonder.

[mnhtnbb]

1. And yet, there are pilot heroes. Sully Sullenberger.

Pilots don't intentionally crash their airplanes. They just don't.

Something was wrong--very wrong--with this man and the Lufthansa pilot
screening process didn't pick it up.

BTW, it was the same plane--an Airbus 320--that Sully successfully ditched in the Hudson River when it lost power and the German co-pilot flew into a mountain.

[CTyankee]

2. don't pilots have a union?

I would think the union would offer some protections to the pilots.

[question everything]

3. I think that each airline has its own union

and that Colgan airlines was a commuter one with probably different games.

[NM_Birder]

4. tens of thousands of flights take place everyday.

without incident of any kind.

life is a game, involving the law of averages.
An airline incident occurs, .......a terrible incident occurs once every x number of months/years after however many hundreds of thousands of flights. The all to common thought is "what can we do to be sure this doesn't happen" the cold truth is....nothing. You cannot "unfactor the x"

people being the "x-factor", be it pilot, mechanical, inspector, .terrorist, whatever. look at the OVERWHELMING safety record of the airline industry, and you either accept the idea that you have a 99.9% chance of nothing happening,............. or you don't.

[geomon666]

5. As the son of an airline mechanic/supervisor

I am very much aware of the risks of flying. I will not share any stories of course.

[question everything]

6. Of course. I just wish that the conditions and payments for airline crews

and mechanics were decent.

[geomon666]

7. Absolutely

I would include all air traffic control personnel in that too.

[CTyankee]

8. I wonder what kind of settlement Lufthansa would make to the victims.

There's bound to be a ton of lawsuits...