Glad I didn't become a Pilot

While in primary school, I remember my class was asked a common question by one of our teachers. The question was: “What would you want to become when you grow up”?

Each one, one by one, had to stand up and answer. Most of my classmates including yours truly said “I want to become a Pilot” with some sane mates of mine opting to become Scientists, Doctors and Engineers. The word “Pilot” was probably very attractive and may be appeared glamorous to us then. Although most of us didn’t know the actual job functions, we simply went for it.

I don’t know about my classmates but I am glad I didn’t become one. I have my reasons for it today. In the last one year, the Pilots of different Airlines in India who have gone on strike causing immeasurable problems to passengers are countless. Passengers wanting to reach destinations for holidays, on urgent work related matters and some for emergency reasons were severely affected for no fault of theirs. The news and sight of passengers stranded at Airports for hours and sometime for an entire day doesn’t surprise us anymore because of Pilots going on strike for reasons that is hard to explain.

Largely, nowadays, an air traveler’s life often relies on these Pilots. Be it on ground before takeoff or after takeoff. On ground because, you never know when they go on strike spoiling the plans of the passengers and in mid-air because, you never know when they leave their cockpit empty and start fighting with their colleagues in the galley, leaving us completely unsafe.

The news of the Air India flight Pilots’ nuisance early this week where the Pilots left the cockpit empty to fight with their cabin crew colleagues in the galley at 30000ft altitude casts the doubts in the minds of the air traveler. Despite the plane’s operating systems and maintenance of the aircraft being in good conditions, how safe is an air traveler in these erratic and negligent Pilot’s hands?

Is it worth putting our lives in danger and in the hands of such irresponsible people?

The very thought of Pilots and their Cabin Crew colleagues behavior on that Air India IC 884 plane from Sharjah to Delhi sends shivers up the spine of the frequent air traveler. Their act merited immediate sacking with no questions asked as they played with lives of 160 passengers on board that flight.

There are many factors that contribute to the safety of an airline passenger including, but not limited to, maintenance and operational procedures, types of training programs, age of fleet and specific routes flown etc.

As per the Airline industry statistics, aviation accidents are extremely rare, with the probability of a passenger being killed on a single flight at approximately eight million-to-one. Which means, if a passenger boarded a flight at random, once a day, every day, it would statistically be over 21,000 years before he or she would be killed.

But with such Pilots and cabin crew on job today, does the above statistics hold good? It certainly doesn’t but what is certain in my mind is the beautiful feeling that I didn’t become a Pilot.