[quote=seafeye;761785]Not talking below 10,000 isn't going to make flying that much safer.
Sure it will. 10,000 feet is not magic but the standard needed to be set somewhere. Focus is the only way to mitigate errors. You cannot focus on the task at hand while discussing non essential subjects. The time for that is above 10,000.
People get distracted for a number of reasons. Sometimes i wish something would be said to break up the silence. After 6 legs, short overnight, communicating with the other person is a good way to tell they are awake.
Call fatigued.
A real company will find out why a person misses a step on the checklist. Not just some blanket statement that some sterile rule was broken.
Don't break it it it won't be the reason. This is simple. its called discipline.
It's never that simple. Accidents are always a chain of events. We weren't there so we won't know 100%.
I agree 100% here. There are always multiple factors. However, if one of them involves the pilots willfully violating the rules then you can bet it will be the item most focused on by the media as well as our regulators.
After doing a 4 day consisting of 20 legs, things blend into eachother.
Did we do a taxi check? How about before takeoff?
How about....Were we cleared to land? I heard it 6 times today but was that 2 hours ago or 2 minutes?
Been there done that. Had to stop and review everything and re-run all checklists because we could not remember for sure what we had and had not done yet.
I'm not making excuses but you have to realize 100% of the pilots break the sterile rule
True enough. But now we see the consequences. And twice. I am a regional pilot. I am a professional. I am sick of the accidents and incidents. I am sick of the microsope. The problem is that we dont expect it to be us. It wont happen to me. Well guess what, it wasnt going to happen to the crew of 3407. It wasn't going to happen to the crew of Comair 5191. It wasn't going to happen to this crew but it nearly did.
My point is this. We are are worst enemy if we justify breaking sterile cockpit. We are are worst enemy when the last three major incidents all involve lack of cockpit discipline. We have to stop this. Sure we have all done it but now it is time to stop. We have seen the results and they are not pretty.
Here is an interesting read from a few years back dealing with sterile cockpit.
http://www.ntsb.gov/Publictn/1997/AAR9701.pdf