“This was a leave-your-ego-at-the-door affair – we didn’t worry about hurting anyone’s feelings.”

 

Mark,

I disagree with this philosophy.

Post flight critiques are indeed, a great idea, and those of us who have been in the military and especially in airlines have endured them five times a year during sim and line checks.

It is called SUPERVISION.

However, unrestrained slamming of a crew member’s conduct, when it can be assumed it was executed in the belief of the correct course of action, can be highly counterproductive.

Let me give a couple of examples.

I know of a case where a not so inexperienced B727 first officer was landing in very hot, gusty conditions, with gusts up to 40 knots, direction swinging, turbulence considerable.

The poor guy dropped it in, and the ensuing bounce required the captain to take over, and recover.

Now you could argue that the F/O should never have done the approach. But that assumes he might not be up to the task. Given his experience, as well as the need to expose pilots in the system to the FULL range of tasks, the decision to let him continue until it became necessary to take over seems reasonable.

The basic flying techniques required for the conditions simply left the guy at a crucial moment.

Now we have two options.

Rip shreds off the guy and belittle him, or do what the captain did, which was to review and debrief the approach with the FE in attendance, do it in a professional but light hearted manner so the guy didn’t feel belittled, and because he was already upset by the experience, gave him the following two sectors to fly.

The feedback from the FO concerned was positive. I imagine it could have been otherwise had he been berated.

The FO has long since been a Captain in a major international airline.

The second example is a sample of what can happen when ego’s are pricked beyond recovery.

A few years ago you will recall, I am sure, the Silk Air accident in Indonesia, where the pilot had been, at least in his eyes, belittled by the company in his promotion to command and higher ambitions.

The result was the B737 was deliberately flown into the ground.

Extreme though this case is, it highlights the fact that all pilots have egos, and some don’t react well to criticism.

 

Dom Crain

 

VH-CZJ