3 ms·
Beyond the marketing there's the issue of who to blame when things go bad. These days the airline will always say "pilot error" is to blame. Once the pilot is
by sunstone 9y ago
Beyond the marketing there's the issue of who to blame when things go bad. These days the airline will always say "pilot error" is to blame. Once the pilot is gone that excuse obviously won't fly.
- dogma1138 9y agoThat's a problem for the insurance companies not the airlines. The reputation damage for the airline is more or less the same. Also note that while pilot error is the conclusion of about 60% of all aircraft accidents it's not the case for major airlines flying big passenger jets. That statistic is inflated quite a bit by smaller chartered flights since it counts all accidents with 5 or more passengers onboard. Also note that that statistic also shows that the majority of accidents happen on taxing, landing or take off. You'll be surprised by how many taxing accidents there are that cause fatalities which are deemed as pilot error despite that no passenger have been killed but rather ground crew. There are more taxi accidents than there are accidents at cruising altitude. So yes pilot error is a big factor, it's smaller for hull loss accidents for large commercial jets but it's still the case. I should also note that a fatal accident can also still be pilot error despite it having a different root cause like a bird strike or a mechanical problem if the pilot did not perform correctly.