[Anonymous]

[KarlMarx]

How does everyone else feel about this story?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/aviation/11032823/Pilots-false-arm-broke-free-during-landing.html

[Bullfrog]

I just read this story & am shocked.

It is one thing being an equal opportunity employer. This unfortunate incident reflects poorly on the concern for passenger safety, from both the CAA’s perspective and Flybe.

[TominScotland]

Scary incident….

As a side issue, I love the lazy journalism here, showing an old picture of a BA Dash-8….. errr, why?

[MrMichael]

Not really that bothered. I fly Flybe most weeks, indeed I am later today from SOU to Manchester. Perfectly possible the same one armed pilot will be the skipper on that flight and I have every confidence that the flight will be perfectly safe.

I think like any airline accident or incident, the airline business and regulators learn from it and put things in place to mitigate the issue, Flybe and the pilot seem to have done just that. It would seem the AAIB are happy with that, so I am too.

Edit, I must confess, it does seem rather a 1st April type story. Oh and TominScotland, you answered your own question.

[MartynSinclair]

My only ‘concern’ is that control was not automatically passed to the f/o.

[Bullfrog]

I’m flying FlyBe tomorrow. It does not scare me, but it makes me question the depth of thought & care provided by the CAA & the airlines. It’s a bit late ‘after an event’.

[MartynSinclair]

I don’t know the answer and certainly don’t the pilot’s history, but I wonder whether it was his right or left arm. I would imagine that a prosthesis would be more difficult to use with the throttles, needing far more sensitivity…than the yoke…..

[canucklad]

I was a bit dumbfounded, but I’m pragmatic about it all….. I’m presuming he still has to pass all his checks to the same standard as someone with 2 arms.

And if you apply logic, missing vision aids would probably concern me more. My mate now needs to wear glasses to read charts, but his vanity has been massaged due to the introduction of the use of tablets ! : )

[SimonS1]

It was his left arm Martyn.

[LuganoPirate]

I have to admit to having a good chuckle over this. I wonder if he’ll now be nicknamed “Captain Hook” ;-). In today’s PC climate probably not.

[NTarrant]

But he was fairly h armless really

[openfly]

The thing that leaves me speechless is the fact that the UK CAA permitted this person to have a full Airline Transport Pilots Licence with this disability.

On the ground a pilot needs two fully-functioning arms and hands to control the aircraft, one for the tiller and the other for the thrust levers.

In the air, while manually handling the aircraft, particularly during cross-wind landings and take-offs, and especially on a turbo-prop, total dexterity is required with hands and arms controlling the thrust levers and control column, and feet controlling the rudder bar and toe braking, for the landing.

This pilot must have coped amazingly to demonstrate to the CAA his ability to fully, and safely, control the aircraft under all situations. Although in this instance things seem to have gone astray somewhat.

I hope that the CAA will be reviewing the situation.

[superchris]

I also nearly choked on my eggs benedict this morning over this. Im all for equal opportunities but this is just utterly bonkers. Surely you have to be in the peak of physical fitness to be a commercial pilot?

It was clearly silly season yesterday as there was an article on BBC about blind people in the US with gun licences which got a similar reaction from me!

[nmh1204]

openfly, provided a person can operate the aircraft safely, disability is irrelevant. Would you say the same about someone who’s deaf, or has one leg?

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