News For The Day - 18 Jun 2009 pt 2

Here's an interesting item from the aviation sector:

Continental flight captain dies in flight, jet lands safely.

OK, let me preface this: I think that the flight crew acted with exceptional aplomb, and did their job to perfection. They landed the plane, safely, at the flight's destination, on time, without causing passenger panic.

That being said, what is this, a bad remake of Airplane? As an aviation enthusiast myself, this boggles my mind. Pilots, no matter if they have a Private license, single-engine helo license, all the way up to Multi-Engine Turbine Passenger/Cargo license (and yes, there are several licenses I didn't mention in between), EVERYONE has to get an FAA-approved flight physical every 24 months, some pilots more often. Not to mention, when any major surgery is performed, or life-changing condition diagnosed, pilots have to submit the doctor's findings to a certified Flight Surgeon. You CANNOT tell me that this condition (high blood pressure, high cholesterol, whatever) just 'snuck up'. It didn't 'come out of the blue', he wasn't touched by the Hand of God. The captain needed to have been grounded about 6 months prior to this. If he had 32 years as a Continental pilot, he had retirement coming. He was 60, good for him that he could keep flying. That's awesome. But the fact still remains, that day, he was in no condition to be flying 247 passengers, or one of the most modern jets in the commercial fleet. I can only imagine the scene in the flight deck (which is the PC term for 'cockpit') when this happened. Did the copilots just strap him to the seat and hope? The whole thing seriously borders on the ridiculous. Not to mention that the doctor that was paged from the passenger compartment couldn't've had his medical bag with him (thank you TSA), so even if the doc might've been able to do something to help, he was hampered by lack of applicable tools. I predict that this event will be documented in an aviation medical journal somewhere, and will lead to yet more stringent regulation on even getting pilots' licenses in the first place, let alone keeping it after age 55. I know a pilot that's into his 70's, and is healthy as the proverbial horse, but he was told to hang up his wings because he was 'too old'. So now what? Get out of the military at 35, work for the airlines for 20 years, and 'see ya later'? What is going to happen when aircraft get faster (technologies are on the horizon that could increase the speed of passenger liners up to threefold)? Personally, I think that pilots of certain ratings (passenger carriers in particular) need to be vetted by a Flight Surgeon EVERY time they fly. Every major airport has medical staff on the premises at all times, how difficult would it be to give pilots a quick once-over before they board? This could be the subject for a blog in and of itself, if there's interest.

Until Next Time!