1. Doesn't the NTSB always release cockpit transcripts as part of its investigations? I understood that the actual VOICE tapes are NEVER released ( for obvious reasons)..but how can the BEA object to the transcripts made public?
2. Don't understand why you feel that modern jets need a navigator. Today with GPS and all other systems, isn't it redundant, and an unnecessaary expense. In the early days of transoceanic flight, navigators used to shoot the stars to determine their position..but today?
BTW..Reading the article, everytime it said BEA, I kept thinking of the old British European Arways, and it's then sister airline..BOAC...times have sure changed.
Have you seen "Pan Am?" Great job of showing the 60's..( I dated a PanAm stewardess for a few years..69-70..and it takes me waaay back) and all the 707 cockpit scenes show three crew in the cabin. Is it a flight engineer? Did he also double as the navigator?
>>1. Doesn't the NTSB always release cockpit transcripts as part of its investigations? I understood that the actual VOICE tapes are NEVER released ( for obvious reasons)..but how can the BEA object to the transcripts made public?
Different country, different sentiments, different rules. My experience with France and French culture informs me that the French don't want their personal misbehavior known to others and that extends to such events as this crew's fatal screw-up.
>>2. Don't understand why you feel that modern jets need a navigator. Today with GPS and all other systems, isn't it redundant, and an unnecessaary expense. In the early days of transoceanic flight, navigators used to shoot the stars to determine their position..but today?
Modern aircraft don't need two pilots, either, but public sentiment and fear of lawsuits keeps them there. For long flights a third pilot is carried to relieve one of the other two. Flight engineers' jobs have been replaced by automation and so has the navigator's. This, of course, introduces additional risks to a flight but the sentiment is that an emergency is so unlikely that they are not worth the expense. Airlines are operating so close to bankruptcy that any cost cutting is to be appreciated.
>>BTW..Reading the article, everytime it said BEA, I kept thinking of the old British European Arways, and it's then sister airline..BOAC...times have sure changed.
Yeah. My last BOAC flight was to Bermuda and back in 1974. Upon landing back home the BOAC baggage carousele disgorged my torn and mashed suitcase, split-open and drooling shredded clothing. I never figured-out what happened. BOAC paid me off IAW their insurance. I got a check for $4.10.
>>Have you seen "Pan Am?" Great job of showing the 60's..( I dated a PanAm stewardess for a few years..69-70..and it takes me waaay back) and all the 707 cockpit scenes show three crew in the cabin. Is it a flight engineer? Did he also double as the navigator?
I haven't seen it. Is it a movie? 707s began service in 1958 (?) and for overwater flights carried both flight engineers and navigators. In the early 70s aboard the P-3A and -B, the third pilot served as an unwilling, "latrine navigator" because the Navy was so short of NFOs/qualified navigators and the one NFO was the ASW tactical coordinator at his own station. They hated being NAV and had been given only one month's "power-fueled" fast training, leading to some really awful navigation and the problems that created.