I am getting sick of reading pilots who claim that the threat of layoffs are causing undue stress that they are unfit to fly. This sort of accusations seriously undermines the credibilities of the pilots themselves. So in other words, flying an aircraft is not stressful? One senior pilot went as far as claiming in the South China Morning Post this morning that if he slipped up over stress while piloting a plane, it would cost over 400 lives.

So when this is all over, should one feel safe to board a Cathay Pacific flight knowing full well that 'other' events might trigger certain miscalculations...? What is not stressful? Pilot going through divorce, pilot deciding which car to buy next, pilot deciding over the fish or chicken meal from First Class galley.

The ones suffering most are certainly not the management OR the pilots but us lowly passengers who have to resort to charter carriers to take us around. The hard-currency full fare Business and First class passenger can certainly be endorsed over to another carrier but those who are stuck with a 'special' seat sale ticket have to take whatever Cathay has chartered. Certain flights have even been chartered to be carried by World Airways. Now is that bummer or what?