Babbitt told an international aviation club on Wednesday that aviation is facing an "extreme need to refocus on professionalism....."


"I think that this is a sign of a much bigger problem," Babbott said. "I can't regulate professionalism. With everything we know about human factors, there are still those who just ignore the common sense rules of safety."

So, let me get this straight. We [pilots] have 2-3 public incidents in a year that show us in a bad light and the head of the FAA (who used to be the head of the pilots union) paints the entire profession as having an "extreme need to refocus on professionalism."

99.999% of ALL airline flights are operated in a professional way by a professional crew. I take personal offense at the implication because every cockpit that I have been in as a captain or jumpseater has been operated in a very professional way. How dare he imply that they aren't.

I read a stat somewhere that doctors make serious mistakes in about 4% of all their medical procedures. I don't hear the HHS making speaches saying that doctors need to become more professional. Why is the head of the FAA saying that pilots need to be more professional when we have a much better safety record that ANY other profession in the world?

ALPA needs to nip this in the bud, right now.


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