It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World of Commercial Aviation

[Floatsflyer]

What the hell is going on in commercial aviation? In the last couple of years we've heard about documented reports of controllers asleep in their towers, pilots asleep in their cockpits, drunk pilots flying, pilots overshooting intended destinations, pilots mistaking one airport for another, etc, etc.

But this episode is right out of the Monty Python skit "And Now For Something Completely Different". Seems an Air India flight crew mistook their flight attendants for pilots!! The flight attendants flew the plane while the flight crew napped in business class! Doubly qualifies for this year's Darwin Award and the What We're They Thinking Award.

http://www.aero-news.net/subsite.cfm...8-8bb2b3356118

[WLIU]

What has happened is the 24hr news cycle. In the competition for ratings anything out of the ordinary anywhere in the world is news for 5 minutes. And aviation in other parts of the world is not aviation in the US. You want scary, go fly commercially in Africa or South America.

I suggest that what goes on in aviation has not changed, its just more visible. Everyone has a cell phone camera Any incident is on You-Tube 10 minutes after it happens.

Technology is not always your friend. Flying out in the woods can be relaxing for a number of reasons.

Fly safe,

Wes
N78PS

[Floatsflyer]

And aviation in other parts of the world is not aviation in the US. You want scary, go fly commercially in Africa or South America.



Wes
N78PS

The incidents I mentioned were all on US carriers in US airspace. The controllers were US controllers.

[Flyfalcons]

Yeah, three or four incidents out of millions of operations per year. What an epidemic.

[Joe Delene]

I'm sure it was a mad world a few decades back, with some CFIT & T-storm encounters to go with it.

[steveinindy]

Yeah, three or four incidents out of millions of operations per year. What an epidemic.

Welcome to the selection bias rearing its ugly head.

And aviation in other parts of the world is not aviation in the US. You want scary, go fly commercially in Africa or South America.

Add Indonesia, Russia and India to that list. As a point of fact, once the new funding cycle for my research starts later this year, I am prohibited from using that money which is earmarked for travel expenses book a fllight on any of the following:
-Any Russian airline
-Any Indonesian airline
-Any airline currently on the European blacklist
-On board the Boeing 787 (because of concerns that the "fix" the FAA recently approved is not really a solution to the problem)
-On board any Russian built aircraft (Ilyushin, Antonov, Sukhoi, etc)

drunk pilots flying

There's a reason why I own a shirt that says "I Flew Aeroflot and Lived!". The older generation freely admits that it used to be standard and accepted practice to take a shot before shooting approaches in bad weather to "toughen up one's constitution for the the challenge" (to quote one of my contacts with the Russian version of the NTSB who is a former Aeroflot pilot).

pilots mistaking one airport for another

Nothing new. You ever heard of the incident in Vietnam involving an American-owned 707? Now THAT was mistaking an airport.

The incidents I mentioned were all on US carriers in US airspace. The controllers were US controllers.

...and the point still stands. You're a victim of the media obsession with ratings. Nothing more, nothing less. It reminds me of the recent cartoon where the TV is blasting "WHAT DO WE DO TO GET RID OF THE PANIC OVER TERRORISM!?!?!?!" and the next frame has the guy clicking the TV off.

[Pilawt]

There's a reason why I own a shirt that says "I Flew Aeroflot and Lived!". The older generation freely admits that it used to be standard and accepted practice to take a shot before shooting approaches in bad weather to "toughen up one's constitution for the the challenge" (to quote one of my contacts with the Russian version of the NTSB who is a former Aeroflot pilot).

There are cultural differences. A Russian friend tells me that if the pilot cannot get one of the engines started on a Russian airliner, the passengers might take up a collection to bribe him to take off anyway. Well, my friend may be exaggerating ... a little bit.

These photos do tell a story, though ...

http://www.airliners.net/photo/Vaso-...l-86/0995911/L
http://www.airliners.net/photo/Domod...-300/0321482/L

[Joe LaMantia]

I spent this past Sunday through Tuesday on a weekend vacation w/o TV of any kind. Today all I am hearing about is the 3 young ladies who have returned from an unknown captivity somewhere in Cleveland. This is selling a lot of stuff. TV's still have some form of "on/off" switch...turn it off and discover the lost world of stress free living.

Joe

[steveinindy]

There are cultural differences. A Russian friend tells me that if the pilot cannot get one of the engines started on a Russian airliner, the passengers might take up a collection to bribe him to take off anyway. Well, my friend may be exaggerating ... a little bit.

These photos do tell a story, though ...

Cultural differences or not, to quote the guy who gave me first flying lesson: "Stupid looks the same in any language".

[Mike M]

The incidents I mentioned were all on US carriers in US airspace. The controllers were US controllers.

gee, i guess i was fooled by part of your first post - "Seems an Air India flight crew mistook their flight attendants for pilots!!"