Originally Posted by HSLD

Aside from being an Air Force Academy grad with top honors for airmanship followed by almost 20,000 hours of piloting time, multiple stints as an instructor pilot, member of the Air Force accident investigation board, ALPA Air Safety Chairman, ALPA Accident Investigator, national safety technical advisory board member, participant in numerous NTSB accident investigations, NASA co-author on pilot error related scientific studies, CRM expert, and the owner of his own safety consulting business - not much.

I'm sure if you asked him, he'd tell you he's a typical line pilot. However, typical for him comes from a much different perspective than the graduate of a pilot mill who grabbed a line number and is marking time until the upgrade. Call it old school, or just experience but the guy has been there and done that and is well qualified to make observations about aviation safety.

The absence of a smoking hole doesn't mean an operation is "safe". United pilots who have watched a mature and cooperative safety culture crumble to a shell of it's former self are well aware of the increased risk to safety. The corporate safety mantra used to be "it's not about who's right, it's about what's right" and fortunately line pilots are hanging on to that ethos. Unfortunately, the new mantra comes across as "it's not about what's right, it's about what sounds good".

It doesn't take a safety expert to see the danger in that attitude.