Gotta love the media...

[BronxATP]

I thought you guys would get a little chuckle out of this:
http://www.slate.com/id/2182343?GT1=10837


I especially like the part when they use the term "tricked out flight simulator."

[athomeinthesky]

"It's rare for pilot error to be a significant cause of a commercial airliner crash"


is this true? I know its less than general aviation but I still thought pilot error was the leading cause.

[esa17]

Every report I've ever read started with: "The pilots failure to..."

[ZachH]

I like the comment at the bottom, My buddy was a pilot......

[cfii2007]

"Do pilots practice crash landings...."

Well, I don't.....not sure about everybody else.

[cfii2007]

Do commercial airline pilots practice crash-landings in flight school?

Uh, not if the flight school likes smashed up aircraft sitting on their ramp.

Can a pilot fly again after crashing a plane?

If he dies in the crash, not likely.

How do they get the plane wreckage off the runway?

They tape it all back together with duct tape and return it to service.

[flyover]

I thought this was a very reasonable treatment of the subject at hand. Something you rarely see in "the media." The "tricked out" reference is obvious. An attempt to describe to laymen what a simulator moving around on hydraulic arms is like.

And the reference to "crash landings" obviously is about the situation the BA pilots found themselves in. Every student pilot practices this loss of power scenario. Probably more attention could be paid to it in transport training too. Although rare, there have been a few famous instances of total loss of thrust while I've been in the industry. Some were handled better than others.