"ALL CAPS IN DEFENSE OF LIBERTY IS NO VICE."

Friday, July 29, 2011

PILOT TRAINING IN THE 21ST CENTURY: IT SUCKS; IT COSTS LIVES!

NYTIMES:
... initial findings highlighted by investigators of the Bureau of Investigations and Analysis indicated that the two co-pilots in the cockpit of the Airbus A330-200 at the time the plane ran into trouble had never been trained to fly the aircraft in manual mode, nor had they been instructed how to promptly recognize and respond to a malfunction of their speed sensors at high altitude — both crucial skills that experts say should have helped them to avert disaster.

The report called for a series of significant changes to pilot training procedures aimed at helping flight crews to respond appropriately when they run into trouble at high altitudes.

NYTIMES/POLAND:
Polish authorities on Friday blamed both the Polish flight crew and Russian air traffic controllers for the 2010 crash in Russia that killed President Lech Kaczynski and 95 other people.

The final report on the disaster said that the Russian air traffic controllers erroneously confirmed to the pilots that the jet, a Tupolev 154, was well positioned for the landing approach at Smolensk North Airport, “which might have affirmed the crew’s belief that the approach was proceeding correctly although the airplane was actually outside the permissible deviation margin.”

Interior Minister Jerzy Miller said at a news conference in Warsaw that “soothing directions from the control tower were misleading,” Reuters reported. “The crew thought it had not committed any errors and that it was on the right approach path.” But the report, produced by the Polish government’s Committee for Investigation of National Aviation Accidents, found that to be only one of the causes. It also pointed to serious training defects among the crew, noting, “Despite obtaining formal certificates confirmed in the orders by the unit commanding officer, the crew did not meet the criteria for fully trained pilots who are competent in performing the duties required on their jobs.”
WHAT'S THE BASIC PROBLEM? TOO GREAT A RELIANCE ON COMPUTERS.

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