- What’s more, there is always a minimum of two pilots in the cockpit, a captain and a first officer—the latter is referred to colloquially as the "co-pilot." Both are fully qualified to operate the aircraft, and they share flying duties; first officers perform just as many takeoffs and landings as captains do. It’s not yet clear which Asiana pilot was physically at the controls, the captain or first officer. In any case, either pilot would have been in a position to note and correct for deviations, or to execute a go-around maneuver. Why this didn't happen we don't know.
I read a book a while back. I cannot remember the name of the life of me. But it was all about emergency situations like 9/11 and numerous other flight crashes and how people react in situations.
One point the book made that was intriguing was the differences in Asian cultures had a direct effect on how pilot and co-pilot handled situations. Situations just like this one where something was going wrong, something should have been, but nothing was - or it was done too late. I should really just find the book and excerpt the quote but basically: the hierarchy and respect for elders that is engrained in Asian cultures moreso than western ones leads co-pilots to not speak up in these situations until it is too late. And when they do they phrase things differently like "are you sure we shouldn't do x" rather than "we should do x now."
It will be interesting to see how this will play out in the end and if this cultural difference had any effect in this situation. IIRC, the crashes studied were many years ago and pilot training has added things to address these issues in the cockpit.
Edit: alright so I'm either combining books or mixing them up. But Tipping Point by Gladwell will do: http://www.slashdocs.com/ixizp/the-ethnic-theory-of-plane-cr...
It's interesting.
Good article, good title. As an amateur pilot I've been enjoying this shitshow as well. The blame is all over the place and at the end of the day not in the right place, and we won't know until all the details are released after the investigation. My favorite is how they make a big deal about this being the pilots first landing in SFO. A: We don't even know which pilot was in control at the time of the crash. B: ... Ummm, ALL pilots have to make their first landing at an airport at some point.
It is imperative to remember that Saturday’s accident was the first multiple-fatality crash involving a major airline in North America since November 2001. (There have been a handful involving regional affiliates, but the majors have been virtually accident-free). The streak has ended, but it lasted nearly 12 years, with some 20,000 commercial jetliners taking off and landing safely in this country every single day—an astonishing run. Is it perverse to suggest that Saturday's accident, awful as it was, serves to underscore just how safe commercial flying has become? That's asking a lot, I know, in this era of race-to-the-bottom news coverage, when speed and sizzle, not accuracy or context, are all that really count.
-I didn't realize that we had gone so long without a multiple fatality crash. That really is impressive given the numbers. This was a good read and as someone that doesn't have cable news, this was my first real introduction in to what has happened. I'm glad I heard it here first.