Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
IMO (IANAP = I am not a pilot), this would work for pilots with lots of hours flying for major (legacy) first world carriers, but not when the cockpit crew consists of only two, with at least one being very inexperienced. Having a third person to improve crew resource management wouldn't be cost effective, so that wouldn't fly as a solution, nor could having only very experienced pilots be mandates for some of these carriers.
I'm not sure I follow this at all.
I avoid getting involved in technical discussions, but my clear understanding of cockpit protocol is that only one pilot is in command. Both pilots are well-trained, and at least one, designated the captain, will have significant numbers of hours' experience. The captain will allocate phases of the flight to him/herself or to his/her copilot, but will be ready to take back command where appropriate and if required.
The phrase
"at least one being very inexperienced" implies that there could be two very inexperienced pilots in the cockpit. I'd hope that in all regulatory jurisdictions a captain's stripes are earned through training and experience. First officers have to gain experience and they do so on active duty in both legacy carrier and others.
Note the circumstances of the Air France AF447 disaster, a disaster in one of your cited legacy, first-world carriers, carrying three pilots to boot. In this case two relatively inexperienced co-pilots were in the cockpit and their behaviour, in turn as pilot flying the aircraft, exacerbated the effects of instrument malfunction : the vastly more experienced captain was resting during the period during which recovery of safe flight was likely possible.