*I* do... 35 year's employment, and they send me a nice retirement check every month and pay most of my health care. Doesn't affect my opinion any. Maybe being a union member helps. :-)Originally Posted by Bill Greenwood
But I do tend to side with DRGT on this. It's ludicrous to put much stock into news media reports on technical issues, especially on this stage. The media doesn't do very well in General Aviation issues...why would they be more believable in commercial aviation ones?
I think it's quite possible that Boeing didn't advertise some of the failure modes in-depth in their training. But from what I've read elsewhere, the software included a blanket "turn off the automation" mode that would have allowed the crew to hand-fly the airplane normally... like the previous crew did.
Part of the problem in the investigation will be political. The Indonesian government will not want to be blamed for insufficient oversight of Lion Air; the obvious target is then that big bad American airplane company.
Lion Air *has* a bad history. It was initially denied entry into IATA due to safety concerns, a number of pilots were busted due to meth use, and the European Union actually banned Lion Air from flying into its air space (ban lifted ~3 years ago).
But I suspect the Indonesian authorities will not want too bright of light shined on their oversight of the airline.
Lion Air is a low-cost airline, like Southwest. Yet Southwest does not seem to have problems Lion Air has. Similar airplanes, same low-cost goals. Ironic as it might be to us GA pilots, the difference might be an independent, aggressive, and enforced regulatory environment.
Ron Wanttaja
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