Korean Air's efforts to improve its operation still leave some unanswered questions about just why the airline has had such a poor record.
"Korean pilots are as good as any other pilots in the world," says deputy head of flight operations and Boeing 747-400 captain, Bill Hardy. The problem is the training policies, he explains. "At Korean Air [they] stagnated as others improved. Now we're doing things rapidly."
Capt Hardy, with experience at his native Canadian Airlines and Singapore Airlines, says KAL began to recognise its troubles after the Guam crash in August 1997. But the April Shanghai accident showed that change was not happening fast enough.
"Guam was definitely a wake-up call. The importance wasn't put on cockpit management or decision making, on what was involved in training a pilot," he says. "We felt we had the plan in place with a continual [gradual] graph rise, but after Shanghai we had to go vertical."
President and chief executive Shim Yi-taek agrees there were internal problems. But he rejects the criticism that KAL is run in an authoritarian manner, its Korean pilots have poor English skills, it has problems with crew resource management and employees suffer from low morale. "To some extent yes there is [a problem], since we have 15,000-plus employees - a few guys, 10 guys, 20 guys, are going to [have problems] - but this shouldn't be representing the opinions or all the manners in the organisation."
Recently appointed head of flight operations and MD-11 captain, Ko Myung-joon, also denies that Korean pilots have poor English skills, and he defends the practice of hiring former air force pilots - in the past its only source of new cockpit crew members.
KAL says they "represent some of the best levels of experience found anywhere". Capt Ko, himself a former air force pilot, says that contrary to their reputation, most do not operate in an authoritarian manner as many believe. He admits, however, that there are cultural issues which must be addressed.
"When I was in the air force I flew jet aircraft all alone for 10-15 years," he says. "Then I came to Korean Air, and had to co-ordinate with job distribution in the cockpit. That is difficult for some pilots. In South Korea, the captain is an old man and the first officer is a young man. In Korean society, the father makes the decisions in the home. For example, if the father says in a restaurant that he wants a hamburger, the son will say, 'Me too'. The young people don't insist in their own thinking.
"But Korean culture is changing, becoming more westernised. Korean Air is changing too."
Some KAL executives privately admit there remains a troubling problem with a small group of ex-air force pilots. These primarily older captains who are nearing retirement are being "delicately" guided towards better practices, but it is proving a challenge.
Source: Airline Business
