4 ms·

> How you get to this level of incompetence flying a 777 is far beyond my understanding. The article said--it's the smallest plane Emirates flies.

kortilla 5y ago
Plane size has zero relevance. The point is that you shouldn’t be flying any jet, even some tiny CRJ, with such basic mistakes.
- manuko83 5y ago
  You shouldn't be flying a Cessna 152 if you can't follow a checklist. Although I would wait until the investigation is finished...it's hard to know what goes on in the cockpit until all the data is gathered and analysed.
EMM_386 5y ago
> The article said--it's the smallest plane Emirates flies. What does that have to do with anything? The 777 is a huge aircraft. It has a maximum passenger capacity of 550 people. If you can have 550 people lives in your hands and are making mistakes like this, it doesn't matter if it's the smallest aircraft in their fleet. And before anyone bothers to point it out, I know this particular airframe was not configured for 550. But being the smallest in the fleet means absolutely nothing.
- KennyBlanken 5y ago
  It's the smallest airplane and a very long route which means it gets the least promoted pilots; it's the shittiest route. The article discusses this.
  - kewrkewm53 5y ago
    Even the least promoted pilot shouldn't be this incompetent in an airline like Emirates. I could perhaps understand it from some small airline in developing country where the pilots got their licences through bribery.
  - gorgonzolachz 5y ago
    I thought based on how pilots were paid, longer routes were more desirable? And shorter routes would be in lower demand, since airlines don't typically pay for time spent on the ground?
deepGem 5y ago
Well, I wouldn't doubt one of the best airlines on the planet. However, the article claims that they hire pilots with lower flying hours as they cannot find experienced pilots like American or United does. I fail to understand this. Can't they just hire experienced pilots from other airlines instead of hiring the inexperienced ones ?
- Pasorrijer 5y ago
  Comes down to a few things. First, money. Second, location. Third, skill. The Middle East doesn't have nearly the pool of pilots to start with compared to North America, and even NA is suffering from an extreme shortage of pilots. (Wonder why the airlines no longer fly to your small town? Probably because of a shortage of pilots)
  - ecshafer 5y ago
    Is there actually a pilot shortage, or is there a pay shortage? Most of the people I know who wanted to be pilots bounced off of the extremely low salary for a very long time. Unless someone does military and gets a lot of hours, and even then not always, they are stuck paying for their own license then making a bit above minimum wage flying between cleveland to nashville or something like that. If the airlines paid more money I think the shortage would probably disappear quickly.
    - throwawaygh 5y ago
      Pilots for large airlines are paid very well (100k-200k+). The training is expensive and time-consuming, but not that expensive or that time-consuming, if we compare to e.g. medicine or science. There is a low-paid and debt-heavy portion of the career. However, Medical students aren't paid and even the lowest-paid pilot is making more than the average phd candidate.
      - raverbashing 5y ago
        The fact that medical students have it hard doesn't justify it being bad for the pilots. Also it's probably easier to get student loans for medicine than it is for piloting. Maybe the regional carriers should pay more and have better conditions but funny how they describe it as a "pilot shortage". It's just supply and demand.
kewrkewm53 5y ago
The error we're talking about here is something that shouldn't happen even to a rookie straight out of flight school. Hell, even a kid flying flight simulator knows that something is wrong if you're still on the ground at 200kts on a 777.

kortilla 5y ago

Plane size has zero relevance. The point is that you shouldn’t be flying any jet, even some tiny CRJ, with such basic mistakes.

manuko83 5y ago
You shouldn't be flying a Cessna 152 if you can't follow a checklist. Although I would wait until the investigation is finished...it's hard to know what goes on in the cockpit until all the data is gathered and analysed.

EMM_386 5y ago

> The article said--it's the smallest plane Emirates flies. What does that have to do with anything? The 777 is a huge aircraft. It has a maximum passenger capacity of 550 people. If you can have 550 people lives in your hands and are making mistakes like this, it doesn't matter if it's the smallest aircraft in their fleet. And before anyone bothers to point it out, I know this particular airframe was not configured for 550. But being the smallest in the fleet means absolutely nothing.

KennyBlanken 5y ago
It's the smallest airplane and a very long route which means it gets the least promoted pilots; it's the shittiest route. The article discusses this.
- kewrkewm53 5y ago
  Even the least promoted pilot shouldn't be this incompetent in an airline like Emirates. I could perhaps understand it from some small airline in developing country where the pilots got their licences through bribery.
- gorgonzolachz 5y ago
  I thought based on how pilots were paid, longer routes were more desirable? And shorter routes would be in lower demand, since airlines don't typically pay for time spent on the ground?

deepGem 5y ago

Well, I wouldn't doubt one of the best airlines on the planet. However, the article claims that they hire pilots with lower flying hours as they cannot find experienced pilots like American or United does. I fail to understand this. Can't they just hire experienced pilots from other airlines instead of hiring the inexperienced ones ?

Pasorrijer 5y ago
Comes down to a few things. First, money. Second, location. Third, skill. The Middle East doesn't have nearly the pool of pilots to start with compared to North America, and even NA is suffering from an extreme shortage of pilots. (Wonder why the airlines no longer fly to your small town? Probably because of a shortage of pilots)
- ecshafer 5y ago
  Is there actually a pilot shortage, or is there a pay shortage? Most of the people I know who wanted to be pilots bounced off of the extremely low salary for a very long time. Unless someone does military and gets a lot of hours, and even then not always, they are stuck paying for their own license then making a bit above minimum wage flying between cleveland to nashville or something like that. If the airlines paid more money I think the shortage would probably disappear quickly.
  - throwawaygh 5y ago
    Pilots for large airlines are paid very well (100k-200k+). The training is expensive and time-consuming, but not that expensive or that time-consuming, if we compare to e.g. medicine or science. There is a low-paid and debt-heavy portion of the career. However, Medical students aren't paid and even the lowest-paid pilot is making more than the average phd candidate.
    - raverbashing 5y ago
      The fact that medical students have it hard doesn't justify it being bad for the pilots. Also it's probably easier to get student loans for medicine than it is for piloting. Maybe the regional carriers should pay more and have better conditions but funny how they describe it as a "pilot shortage". It's just supply and demand.

kewrkewm53 5y ago

The error we're talking about here is something that shouldn't happen even to a rookie straight out of flight school. Hell, even a kid flying flight simulator knows that something is wrong if you're still on the ground at 200kts on a 777.