Although he was brave in saying that, he really had no choice. LaudaAir was being criticised at the time for scaling-up too quickly and putting crews under a lot of stress, with duty rosters pushed to the limit and minimal rest time. Pilot unions had said that an accident was inevitable, and then one happened.
There was genuinely a technical failing with the 767 but he had to do something headline-ish to emphasise that and to shift suspicion away from his management style.
To his credit, his later airline ventures were more sensibly planned and paced and didn't involve him flying routes to fill staffing gaps. He does seem to have been open to learning.
There was genuinely a technical failing with the 767 but he had to do something headline-ish to emphasise that and to shift suspicion away from his management style.
To his credit, his later airline ventures were more sensibly planned and paced and didn't involve him flying routes to fill staffing gaps. He does seem to have been open to learning.