Well..
I think they're onto something, there. In that foxnews interview the guy is saying they're using too much autopilot in asia and that foreign pilots are required to hit autopilot right when the wheels are up and keep autopilot on until wheels are down. Whereas American pilots do more flying.
He's saying there's all kinds of problems, like one Asian copilot was too afraid to ask the pilot if he was on course or not, and cultural problems where junior officers won't question senior officers, etc. And note that in this case, ground control DENIED the pilot clearance to get to higher altitude in the rough weather.
Some other analysis I've heard, on CNN:
* That this region of the world has unusually dynamic rough weather, and that whereas in the US we do flight delays all the time and avoid bad weather, they're not doing this in Asia, in Asia they are accepting risks that we don't in the US
* These airlines have grown so fast, it's just a valuejet syndrome going on, the pilots don't have the experience, the ground control doesn't, the system is not as good as north america and europe
* The weather this plane was flying in was so bad, that if had been in the US then the plane would never have taken off to start with
I think what's going on with these malaysian airliners is the overall thing we see with China, and Asia as a whole (other than a Japan or South Korea), where the developing nations are just growing so fast. It's like how in China, they don't really have it worked out about how to handle traffic accidents in such, with so many new drivers on the road now and all the highways are new and everything is new and being done for the first time.
It's probably just best that nobody flies on these airlines, you'd better fly on a Western liner. I ain't stupid, that's what I'd do, and I think I'd check the darn weather myself before getting on board.
EDIT: some other things
* It looks like the aircraft stalled, was going at 100mph
* Pilot was denied clearance to climb due to other air traffic. But he climbed anyway, and supposedly that's not smart in immediate bad weather you're best to make a turn left or right but not climb (that's what a talking head on CNN says anyhow
)
CNN was talking about a Air France flight that went down from a stall, and how pilots were just confused by all the buzzers and alarms and they misunderstood the situation they were in.
I'm not sure what the bottom line is, I think maybe it's TOO MUCH autopilot going on and then SHTF and the pilots aren't flying the plane to start with so then they don't know what they're doing.
You've got me so shocked, I'm speechless for once.
Thanks.
