Re: O.T. Are you a plugger? Message #21 Posted by Geoff Quickfall on 5 Nov 2009, 1:26 p.m., in response to message #20 by Don Shepherd
Hello Don,
There is almost no excuse in the cockpit for distractions other then aircraft systems falilures.
Another exception is fatigue, which in itself is deadly, but has a set of standards and procedures designed to allow a rest period in the cockpit while the other pilot is alert.
These procedures include; aircraft system alerts, ATC radio calls, Emergency frequency monitoring, on board computer alerts from ATC or company via data links and CRT displays, Flight attendant calls (especially when close to destination ETA).
All in all, whether a slide rule, company aircraft manual, rest period or computer, SOMEONE should always be flying the aircraft!
Now I won't prejudge, as all the info is not out, except for the confession of the pilot. I can say that the swiss cheese model of management completely failed. At my company, that would mean 8 layers of built in electronic, ATC, Company, Flight attendant monitoring and Pilot duties vis-a-vis operating procedures, failed, were omitted or are not present at their company.
The terminolgy in the cockpit is PNF or PF which until last month, ironically (prior to the MSP incident) was changed to PF and PM.
Was:
1 PNF pilot not flying
2 PF pilot flying
changed to:
3 PM pilot monitoring
4 PF pilot flying
Cheers, Geoff
p.s. I will wait until the NTSB report in 8 months before commenting fully as all the info is not in yet. What happened to the datalinks, aircraft chimes, flight attendant monitoring and etc. designed to preclude the trouble two pilots can get into when they are distracted?
Edited: 5 Nov 2009, 1:32 p.m.
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