There was nothing exceptional in that JetBlue incident. Anyone trained to put the plane down in a straight line could have done so just as well as the pilot who actually did it.
Not true to an extent. Any pilot trained to put the plane down in a straight line could have done so. It takes thousands and thousands of hours to get to that proficiency.
Another example- The United DC-10 that crashed in Sioux City after losing all hydraulics. Anyone other than a skilled crew of pilots up front would have put that plane into the ground within minutes, killing all on board.
Another example- The DHL A300 crew that was hit by a missile flying from Baghdad in the beginning of the war. They put the plane on the ground safely, while anyone else would have turned the neighborhood below into mangled pieces of charred wreckage.
These aren't bus drivers. They are aviators. Most people could probably follow a step-by-step detailed instruction booklet on how to safely fly an airliner. Just like most people could perform heart surgery if they followed carefully designed steps that told them precisely what to do and when to do it. Pilots make their money when things go wrong. If you have an engine failure shortly after takeoff, you can't afford to dig through the manuals and read what to do. You have to know what to do. If your electronics fail, you can't afford to not be able to calculate how much your airplane is going to weigh when you land on the runway. If you are off by even a fraction the landing gear could collapse and everyone onboard your plane would be finished. If you are hit by a SAM and lose hydraulics, you can't afford to not know what to do. There are counltess emergencies that pilots must be ready for; if you put just anyone up front when things don't go according to plan hundreds of people will be killed. That is why it takes thousands of hours of flying experience to get an airline job. You start out making $14,000 a year teaching students in Cessnas. Thirty years later you are at $300,000 a year, because there are few people in the world with your experience level.
If a bus driver messes up they get in a fender bender. If a pilot messes up hundreds, perhaps thousands in worst-case scenarios, will b e killed. Airline pilots are held up to a much higher standard, and they deserve to be paid as such.
It's a matter of rote memorization. In fact, these days, they pretty much set all the dials and computers before flight and generally never touch the controls during cruise.
Once again, pilots get their big bucks when things go wrong.
Also, a question for those of you who think pilots are overpaid-
How much should they make? Here's a common example-
757 Captain for a major US Airline. He has been working with the airline for 20 years. Let's say he is a graduate of a state college, who paid $50,000 for his education there. After college he spent upwards of $100,000 training to become an airline pilot, renting aircraft, and gaining experience. How much should he make?
