The Laughing Wolf

Pilots Who Should Never Fly Again

My flying on British Airways will stop for a while, given this and this. I wish I could say that this incident surprised me, but it does not. Simply put, heads need to roll. This is not a low-level decision, this is a decision that reaches to the highest levels of airline management and everyone who vetted this decision needs to go, as does the executive management that made it possible. As a pilot, I also think that the pilots involved need to go too.

Most people don't realize the power a pilot holds when flying. The pilot is tasked with the ultimate safety of the aircraft, and one of the things I was taught was that to ensure said safety that we had both the right and the responsibility to resist, and to kill anyone who endangered that safety if necessary. Of course, a lower-level of response was desired, but if push came to shove, you were covered. That is something eroded over time in civil aviation, with well-intentioned rules on terrorist/hijacker accommodation that led directly to 9-11. It would appear, however, that efforts to strengthen pilot independence are so much lip service -- at least at British Airways. In my opinion, however, the pilots made a very bad call in agreeing to go along with the decision. For so doing, they need to go just as does management, for I have no faith in their judgement, and would not care to fly with them under any circumstances.

LW