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“We all just hope the companies that make and manage these machines that we travel in are doing their job 100%”
Yeah, and I am sure One-to-go is doing 100% they can do with the $50 passengers pay for a Bangkok to Phuket trip to cover a multi-million dollar jet consuming fuel, maintenance costs, crew wages (ha ha), crew aircraft endorsements (ha ha) , taxes, landing fees, insurance and so on…
As for international Pilot licensing, it is ridiculously inconsistent. Again I am not saying it is unsafe, just ludicrous:
- I passed the single 3 hour American Air Transport License (ATP) theory exam, (needed to fly for a US airline) after just 8 hours of study! Due the freedom of information act the flight school can access the exam question bank. They sit you down in front of a computer all day going through questions, then you do the exam…sure you need some prior aviation general knowledge, but even so! I didn’t look at an aviation book for two years, and with 8 hours ‘study’ I get a US airline license theory pass after learning exactly nothing I can recall. Cool hey!
The Australian ATP is 6 exams and several months of study. The equivalent European license is 14 exams, and more study still (including much useless /impractical information)
I hold both an Australian and US ATP (plus Canadian, Thai and Maldivian) Now here comes the funny part: If I worked for say Qantas or American Airlines, I could fly all over Europe in their Australian or American registered aircraft, But if I wanted to fly an identical European registered aeroplane, in the exact same airspace, suddenly my Australian and US Licenses are not recognized! I would have to spend more than fifteen thousand US dollars and a great deal of time converting my existing licenses! (better send the girlfriend back to the bank manager once more!) You could easily get the impression that pilot licensing in Europe may be as much about protecting jobs as it is about the practicalities of flying (after all, airplanes do not know which country they are registered in, or who owns the air they are in). It seems strange that such a globally industry appears be so local in its licensing procedures/priorities…
Another curiosity: My Australian instrument rating was costing me over a thousand dollars a year to renew (a European one would be more) and now that I have let it lapse two years, it would cost me several thousands dollars to get back. In comparison, my USA instrument rating costs me nothing to keep, I merely need to be current on the instrument procedures). So fcuk flying in Australia!
Anyhow, having said all that, flying is still safe….I can’t remember the exact number, but statistically you would have to spend thousands of years flying on airlines to be killed in an accident. The poor folks at Phuket were unfortunate.
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