DarkSpeedWorks wrote:
JerseyBigfoot wrote:
The Germanwings example gave rise to peer support and mental health awareness in aviation amongst pilots, whereby we look out for signs each of us is coping. There was an incident where a captain of one of the Irish low cost airlines went to work the day after his young son died, and invariably became overwhelmed and incapacitated.
You have to question what sort of company culture exists that would lead to someone feeling they have to go to work under those conditions.
Apologies, that turned into a longer post than intended. TL;DR: your flight crew will be competent to be up the front end. đź‘Ť
You have an interesting perspective. I would not call the Germanwings crash an "accident". One cannot call a murder-suicide an accident. At least I cannot.
About the bolded part, you should work for some american airlines for a while. I would venture that that kind company culture exists at most US airlines. Safety is COMPLETELY secondary regarding the mental and fatigue conditions of air crews.
I didn't call either an accident (the Germanwings, or the second example whereby a crew member went to work the day after his son died, and flight safety was compromised - this was another well know LCC.)
The Germanwings example is quite often seen as a bad apple, but how do you defend against that? In reality, a system centric view is needed as there are many aspects to this whereby the outcome could have been averted. These are specifically during training, whereby his training was halted due to depression before recommencing; medication, whereby he was denied anti-depressant medication that is permitted under other authorities but critically not under his licensing authority; and finally the psychologists having patient client confidentiality enforced but less guidance on when that can be breached, and in this case it is clear that should have been breached in the interest of public safety. Another aspect is that we rely on pilots to self declare when they are unfit to fly, often at the risk of their careers.
So a "murder-suicide" actually has many parts to it, and there were many failings leading up to it. We value our right to self-determine our destiny; as free thinkers, with choice, therefore we identify people who do wrong as having deliberately chosen that course of action, whereas that is counterproductive in safety critical environments as too often those choices that threaten safety are enforced by company culture, lack of enforcement, lack of procedures, and often necessity as procedures are unreasonable or impossible to follow. Someone suffering deep depression may not feel they have another choice, which is largely academic - the value in the investigation is to truly see where we can prevent an incident in the future. Now we have peer support training, and other good stuff, which still require a pilot to self report with all the associated stigma and potential career limiting potential in doing so...
Safety is always secondary to something. Fatigue is the biggest factor in scheduled commercial aviation, and one of the biggest reasons I no longer work in the scheduled sector.