The "Issue" of Expat Pilots

It certainly didn't take long for someone to try and draw some conclusion between the nationality of the pilot in Saturday's tragic plane crash in Mangalore and the growing "issue" of expat pilots in India.

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2010/05/25/do-expat-pilots-deserve-scrutiny-after-mangalore-crash/

Prior to my assignment, I wasn't even aware of this phenomenon but have had the good fortune of meeting two of the pilots that the post below suggests might need more scrutiny. I don't agree. Personally, it seems a little soon and extremely inappropriate to draw any sort of conclusion that might insinuate that nationality had anything to do with causing a crash.

In my opinion, the cultural issues described below have little, if any, merit. Not to sound like the uni-lingual English-speaking yank that I am, but I was under the impression that all commercial air traffic control was conducted in English, whether you're in the US, India, Tanzania, or Argentina. Of course, my research is scant so I could be wrong.

Professionally, pilots are a little like surgeons; you want them to learn as long as you're not the customer. So the training issue is an interesting one. Obviously, there are other ways for pilots to get hours; however, it will be interesting to see what happens when we get to July 31, 2011 (which is the date by which expat pilots should be phased out). If there's not "a good plan in place to promote Indian pilots" by that time (and I'm defining "good plan" as one that leads to qualified pilots), I might need to rethink domestic travel plans.

The Extremes of India

India presents a world of extremes, and while most of my posts relate to what many would consider the positive extreme (i.e., there's a vast minority of really, really nice things here), I haven't done a great job of relating how the extreme poverty experienced by the masses exists side by side to the opulent luxury enjoyed by a few. As a quick example of how the worlds coexist, one day on the way home from the gym I saw an orange Bentley getting passed by an orange bicycle rickshaw in a roundabout. As an even better example, here's a slideshow I came across from The Wall Street Journal that does a great job of showing the division with pictures (probably better than I could do with words, not that I won't try in the future):

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB127356166778289867.html