I pay pretty close attention to aviation-safety matters, for obvious reasons.
Gotta say, I'm baffled by the breathless treatment in some media of a nothing story about a Continental Boeing 777 that landed in Newark after a transatlantic flight from Brussels, with two fully certified pilots in the cockpit.
Unfortunately, the captain had died of a heart attack in mid-flight. This is very sad, but it is not aviation-safety news -- not with two other pilots on duty.
Overplaying this story does a disservice to passengers who might have legitimate concerns about aviation safety.
By the way, while researching a book, I had the great luck two weeks ago to be able to spend over three hours in a 777 flight simulator at British Airways headquarters at Heathrow. What an informative and exhilarating experience. More on that -- and on how intensely big-airline pilots are trained and re-trained -- in a column this weekend.
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Friday, June 19, 2009
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1 comment:
Hey, fuck roller coasters -- I'd pay big bucks to ride in a 777 simulator with a fully-qualified pilot, say, handling the JAL 123 incident.
Now wouldn't THAT be cool?
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