Spare us your ill-informed condescension. It doesn't matter if this was a US carrier, an African carrier, or the Vatican air force. It doesn't matter if the pilot was from the Netherlands, Swaziland, or the moon. This was incompetence, pure and simple. Like Steamjet, I have flown in the cockpit for thousands of hours, landing everywhere from state of the art airports to bush strips. It is not, repeat NOT difficult to distinguish runway lights from taxiway and boundary lights, even in category III conditions. Rationalizations about circadian rhythms and "unreliable infrastructure" are clever buzzwords for you to toss around but they do not excuse poor performance when hundreds of lives and millions of dollars are on the line. I'd suggest that you not talk the talk until you have walked the walk.

(Written on 2020年 01月 03日)(Permalink)

Thank God it wasn't a Boeing. The Airbus fanbois would be having orgasms.

(Written on 2019年 12月 27日)(Permalink)

Badly fractured my wrist after tripping on uneven sidewalk outside a federal office building. Still getting letters from PI firms FIVE YEARS LATER!

(Written on 2019年 12月 27日)(Permalink)

We always said that the TTA acronym stood for "Try, Try Again."

(Written on 2019年 12月 13日)(Permalink)

I vividly recall flying as a young child on Southern Airways DC-3s, including an occasion when there were 13 pax on board and seven threw up. None of them in the sick sacks. Quite a flight.

(Written on 2019年 12月 13日)(Permalink)

Could have been worse. Could have said "excursion from the tarmac."

(Written on 2019年 11月 15日)(Permalink)

At least the media didn't refer to "the tarmac."

(Written on 2019年 11月 01日)(Permalink)

737 pilot here. No one gets a free pass on this one. The FAA has become slack and careless. Boeing made some serious errors and created the situation in which these disasters could occur. The performance of the pilots was shockingly inept. For all of Boeing's misdeeds and all the FAA's sloppy oversight, sharp, on the ball pilots could have completed these flights, written up the problems, and everyone could have gone on about their business. All the jeering and finger pointing accomplishes nothing. Everyone involved needs to get on the ball, fix the problems, and move on.

(Written on 2019年 06月 21日)(Permalink)

If I recall correctly, that Agusta sells for about six and a half million. What owner in their right mind allows an aircraft in that class to be piloted by someone who is not instrument-rated, given the unpredictable and generally crappy weather in the state of New York?

(Written on 2019年 06月 14日)(Permalink)

(Aircraft enters an uncommanded nose down attitude and begins to accelerate.) Pilot: "Every time I pull the nose up, the system pushes it down again." FO: "Stab trim is ****ed up" (Sound similar to throttles being retarded) (Sound similar to engines spooling down) (Sound similar to stab trim override switches being operated) (Sound similar to throttles being advanced) (Sound similar to engines spooling up) Pilot on PA: "Sorry folks, hit a little pothole in the sky. Everything is fine." Pilot: "They oughta fix that thing or disable it." FO: "Yeah, they really should." Pilot: "What do they have for lunch back there?" FO: "Chicken or ham." Several steps and spurious alarms omitted but you get the point.

(Written on 2019年 05月 31日)(Permalink)