Originally Posted by
ShyGuy
There's no evidence she was a "weak" pilot. She raised the flaps in the heat of the moment, but nothing to suggest a weak pilot in terms of history of busts, failures, etc.
Out of respect for the people that lost their lives I'm not going to further comment on the pilots that made those critical decisions that day.
However, you can study the art of riding a bicycle for months, but you'll still fall off the first time you get on.
Of course training is important but there's no substitute for experience.
There's also a difference between quantity and quality of flight hours. Give me an ex freight dog with 1,000 hours avoiding mountains and thunderstorms at night with no autopilot over someone with 2,000 hours bashing the pattern in Southern California.