After string of jet crashes, a struggle to re-train pilots

As investigators hunt for what caused an AirAsia jet to crash in an equatorial storm on Dec 28, the aviation industry is still struggling to apply the lessons of accidents in similar weather over the past decade. It is too early to say whether the Airbus A320 crashed into the Java Sea due to pilot error, mechanical problems, freak weather or - as most often happens in aviation disasters - a combination of factors. But its apparently uncontrolled plunge, coming after a series of other fatal crashes blamed at least in part on loss of control, has refocused attention on whether pilot training programs need to improve.

The lessons have not been learned to this day. Everyone knows what the problem is, but nobody is doing anything about it.

David Learmount, one of the aviation industry’s leading safety commentators

Critics say pilots don’t get enough training on how to react when an airliner stalls or loses lift, and that changes in guidance about best practices have been slow. Though rare, loss of pilot control ranks as the single biggest cause of air travel deaths. Two crashes in particular forced the issue - the 2009 losses of an Air France flight from Rio De Janeiro to Paris, and a Colgan Air turboprop near Buffalo, New York. In both, confused pilots ignored or countermanded warnings of an impending stall, a condition where a plane loses lift because the air flow over its wings is too slow.

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