Sir - Derek Colborne demands that military pilots be exempt from the demanding tests and licensing examinations which must be passed by all UK airline pilots (Flight International, 21-27 February, P42).
The former Soviet Union and China are parts of the world with a much higher accident rate than the world average. It is significant that civil pilots in these regions come almost exclusively from the military.
Perhaps the figures suggest that the qualities, which make a good military pilot, do not automatically make a safe airline pilot.
J GREEN
Macclesfield, Cheshire, UK
Source: Flight International
