This is your pilot slurring…

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Title – This is your pilot slurring…
Source – The Independent
Date – 4th February 2009

What comment can I make on this story? How can I find a purpose or a lesson we can learn from it?

Maybe the only thing it makes us really aware of is the rise and fall of standards both in companies and countries. It reminds us that things change quickly and having access to the latest information is key to

Safe Travel.

During the cold war information was not always easy to come by and was closely controlled in a propaganda war. With the fall of the Berlin wall came the fall in economic fortunes of many of the eastern bloc counties, the ‘new’ Russia included.

For a decade Russia struggled economically, infrastructure crumbled, public servants went unpaid and the gloss came off the former Soviet grandeur. Along with this there was much talk of Aeroflot failing to maintain its fleet and sadly even if they didn’t quite match the image that many painted of planes falling from the sky, there were too many accidents involving Aeroflot aircraft for it to be a coincidence.

But as countries fall so new ones rise and for the past decade Russia has rebuilt itself, helped by the high oil and gas prices it now relies so heavily on and through strong (many think too ‘strong’) leadership has become a rich and powerful nation once again. More obvious is that a ‘super-class’ of oligarchs have arisen as the ‘mega-rich’ who control many of the key industries in Russia. This includes Aeroflot and it has benefitted from renewed investment and rebuilt in some people’s eyes its reputation to some degree.

It would be flippant of me to compare this incident to the current economic downturn, which with such low oil prices is hurting Russia more than most. This may be well be a one off; a PR disaster; a bad joke; an over reported incident; but in a country that as times get tougher seems to be turning inwards in some respects, such a press freedom and openness, any information is worth consideration.

If we take it as a one-off, then it is an example of how we should stand up (literally and figuratively), when the alarm bells start ringing and follow our instincts. Don’t be a sheep and follow the crowd for fear of what it will look like, stand up, in this case get off and then watch how many people thank you for taking the lead as they follow.

That they tried to explain off what some perceived as a drunk pilot as a mild stroke or suggest that the pilot has little to do except press a button is absurd. Ask Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger III, the pilot nicknamed ‘the Hero of the Hudson’ if he could have performed his remarkable feat when drunk or after a mild stroke?

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