USA Today’s lack of understanding regarding aviation has become another sensationalized story that does nothing other than scare the flying public. In this case, the headline is “Pilots in crashes had multiple failed tests“, and the story states that in most of the major regional airline accidents in the last 10 years, at least one of the pilots had not passed multiple of what USA Today simplistically calls “tests”.
This USA Today article makes no more sense than suggesting that because at least one pilot in each of these accidents was a male (a good bet considering airline pilot demographics), males are inherently unsafe pilots.
Airline pilots in the US are the world’s most thoroughly and frequently monitored, trained, and “tested” professionals, which is a wonderful thing considering the high degree of responsibility and the consequences of mistakes. They must pass intense medical examinations every six months to make sure they are physically fit for duty. Their career path consists of formal checkrides at every stage of pilot certification from private pilot to airline transport pilot, plus checkrides for the instrument rating, complex and multiengine operation, every large aircraft type (type rating) to which they are assigned, plus checkrides or flight checks with every potential employer. In addition to these initial checkrides, airline pilots undergo recurrent training and flight checks on a very frequent basis (typically twice a year), where performance continues to be monitored.
This degree of initial and recurrent training and testing is not found in any other profession. Even physicians are only tested once to receive their medical license at the beginning of their careers. They may go through recurrent training, but they do not have to continue to be tested and evaluated on their medical performance multiple times a year, every year they are licensed. One wonders how many physicians would still be practicing today if they were tested in this manner and the results made available to the public.
So given this intense and frequent testing regime for airline pilots, it’s not surprising that sometime in their career they were not successful the first time taking one or more checkrides. The important fact is that they cannot execute the privileges of an airline transport pilot until they are able to meet the performance standards (referred to by FAA for checkrides as practical test standards), and are able to maintain that proficiency through recurrent training and flight checks.
The article fails to ask: How many airline pilots who had not been successful on every past checkride have NEVER been involved in an aircraft accident? How many pilots–of all certification levels–who have not passed a checkride at one time or another, have NEVER been involved in an accident or incident? Improvements in airline and aviation safety over the years indicates that pilots are better trained and focused on safety than ever before. Newer, tougher checkride standards have probably resulted in a few more failed checkrides than in the past, but this means that those pilots who ultimately pass the checkrides are better equipped than ever before to safely operate these aircraft and transport passengers.
Can the safety record be improved? Sure! But improving safety requires a very careful look at the specific causes of each accident (the root cause) and monitoring the root cause trends across accidents, then develop training and/or operational improvements that address these root causes. This is the job of professionals such as the NTSB, not newspaper writers.
