I rarely write here about aviation matters but if you're interested in airline safety then you need to read the WSJ article up today on the Buffalo crash. Every time someone mentions a cheap air fare on a commuter I shake my head. I don't think most people realize how incredibly low paying the pilot jobs are in the commuters - I doubt the co-pilot in the Buffalo crash was making $20,000 a year. Here's a bit of the WSJ piece:
The crew initially didn't notice the plane's speed had dropped dangerously low, sliding under 115 miles an hour, and risked going into a stall. The slowing speed set off an emergency system called a "stick-pusher," which pushes the control column down in order to send the aircraft into a temporary dive so it can regain speed and recover from a stall.
However, Capt. Renslow tried to force the plane to do the opposite. He yanked back on the controls while adding thrust. His effort was strong enough to manually override the stick-pusher. Within seconds, the plane lost lift, bucked violently and started to roll. It slammed into a house five miles from the runway.Colgan's standard training program stops short of demonstrating the operation of the stick-pusher in flight simulators. Without such hands-on experience, safety investigators argue, pilots could be surprised and not react properly when the stick-pusher activates during an emergency. The FAA is required to sign off on all airline training manuals.
They should have hands-on training with the stick-pusher response and I bet in the wake of this crash there will be a new rule requiring all airlines operating aircraft with this technology must do so. As for the captain's response, well I'm not surprised. Everyone I knew in the industry called this one pilot error from the very beginning.
May 11
2009
04:07 PM
Have you read Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell? He has a section on airline safety. He says that the way people learn to relate to one another, particularly within a hierarchy, has an impact on how pilots communicate with one another and with air traffic controllers. The culture one grows up in and lives within can influence this kind of communication.
Which isn't what you are talking about here, but I thought you might be interested.