From Lose Friends Radio comes this ‘Believe it or not’ segment Number 6, called ‘All aboard’. You can read the transcript below, or listen to the original broadcast by clicking on the green play button:
Jonar_Nader_06_BION_all_aboard.mp3
Believe it or not, according to Jonar Nader, a panel of engineers at a French aviation convention, commissioned by the European Aviation Authority, came together to consider how an aircraft can be made as safe as possibly.
When the committee submitted their report, their recommendations shocked the airline industry. One of their proposals for making flights as safe as possible, was to introduce a new law requiring “all senior engineers (working on any aircraft) to board that flight and travel with the rest of the passengers”. This, the committee asserts, would give engineers the ultimate incentive to ensure that the aircraft is as airworthy as possible – after all, their lives would depend on it.
Unions were outraged by such a suggestion, saying that this idea would not only disrupt their members’ lives, it also seems to suggest that air disasters are somehow the fault of engineers.
The airlines did not like the idea either, arguing that there are not enough engineers in the world to make implementing this costly proposal feasible.
Well, there seem to be enough pilots in the world. So perhaps engineers’ status and pay conditions could be improved to attract more people to the industry.
Currently, aircraft engineers do not have a very exciting career. Many stay with the same airline for most of their working life. This is partly because their skills are so specialised, that if they wanted to change employers, they would also have to change countries, or leave the industry altogether.
As for the committee’s proposal, maybe one day it will be given currency by an innovative airline who will launch an advertising campaign advocating the fact that their engineers guarantee the safety of their aircrafts… with their own lives!
Believe it… or not.
Comments are closed.