I think in a lot of ways, many people mistake pilot-community discussion/opinion about pilot actions during an accident as judgement or criticism, when really, we’re just trying to get a handle on what happened and see if we can apply any knowledge in the shorter-term to possibly help us navigate a similar situation. Often that discussion will necessarily need to include extrapolation from incomplete evidence based on educated ways of looking at the incident.

We are moving into a culture where people place a lot of emphasis on individual self-esteem and emotional fitness, but let’s face facts, here: Many, if not most of us, are or aspiring to be professional pilots. We live and work in an arena where there there are actual live and some very expensive assets at stake on a daily basis.

This isn’t riding in mommy’s Explorer to the soccer game where everyone on the team gets a trophy and a hug from the coach just for showing up; it’s hard reality. And one of the ways we deal with that hard reality is to pick apart our own performance as well as the performance of our peers to find places where weakness can be filtered out and where performance can be improve: ergo, we should expect to be evaluated, criticized, and judged on our performance, even if (especially if) that performance results in loss or death. That’s the harsh reality of what we do- if someone is troubled by that or can’t handle it, then they’ve chosen the wrong path.

I got criticized of being judgmental/speculative/pilot bashing with my analysis of the CVR/FDR data from the Ethiopian crash. My write up was none of those things; it has an honest analysis of what those pilots did vs. the procedures that should have been followed based on my personal experience with the same airplane. It was an informed discussion/analysis/opinion, and was intended to highlight the issues with crew performance I saw so that others could learn as well and think about the situation differently should it happen to them. Sure, Boeing has allowed an an airplane with some obvious, preventable flaws to be released, but that doesn’t excuse the pilots flying it or the people training them from handling the situation correctly should it occur. And before we go into the “but you don’t know if the situation is recoverable, so you can’t say that!” argument: The data (so far) suggests that the situation was probably survivable had the crew taken a slightly different course of action. I’ll happily change my tune if new info comes to light that disproves that educated opinion.

I’m getting really tired of this often-repeated chord of “It’s the manufacturers/airplane’s fault— stop blaming the pilots!” An airplane is machine. Machines will eventually break or malfunction— how the pilots handle the breakage or malfunction is as important as the mechanical issue when we’re taking about an accident. You can’t separate them just because you’re feeling overly-sensitive.

If I fuck something up out there flying, or handle a malfunction badly, I fully expect to be criticized/judged on my performance. Feel free. Learn from it. Correct my actions. Armchair it all you want. We’re pilots. This is what we do. This is how we survive. I promise you you’re not going to hurt my feewings.