Originally Posted by
Alex909
I am a very frequent HAL passenger with the need to go between Hawaii or US Mainland and China/Japan monthly. I posted here because I need to decide on my flights and carrier for this year but I hesitate to do so because I am genuinely becoming concerned about automation and training (I am also a software engineer with automation experience, so that does not help.)
It is becoming more and more clear that what pilots seem to be experiencing with complex aircraft such as A330 or B777/787 is a new situation where, due to the complex design nature of their aircraft, they instantly don't know what the aircraft itself is doing. So in an abnormal situation, as in the one which lead to several recent crashes (AF447, Asiana214 at SFO) and many more near incidents (resulting in Airbus issuing new directives recently), we have the situation where several qualified pilots were baffled with what was happening to the aircraft. It seems you have only minutes to work out what's going on, and then to deal with it, or else.
I am starting to become genuinely concerned since HAL has an aggressive strategy to switch the fleet away from 767 to more highly automated planes. It would be helpful to know that a training strategy is being put in place to deal with possible sensor and automation failures.
I can assure you that HAL pilots are trained on every level of automation that the 330 has, as well as many emergency scenarios. This includes everything from dual engine failures to engine fires, cabin depressurization, loss of "protections," loss of braking and the list goes on. One cannot be trained on every possible scenario, but basic principles are addressed throughout training and come instilled in all pilots at the level found at an airline like HAL. Automation, it's advancements and the new realities this brings are very much a topic of discussion at HAL and I would imagine every US carrier. I certainly wouldn't book away from HAL, just because the airline operates Airbus product.