FAA throws pilots under the Airbus

On 29 Oct, 20:00, Mike Ash wrote:
In article
,
*D Ramapriya wrote:

Quite. Skeptics need only remind themselves of the name of Nick
Tafuri, a cove with 13k+ flying hours who committed a somewhat
elementary error and didn't live long enough (nor did 160 others) for
the FAA to revoke or take any other action on his license.

So, wait, did Tafuri make a prior screwup that should have resulted in
revocation of his license, but didn't, and thus allowed him to continue
flying and get his passengers killed?


No, I probably mis-conveyed. Tafuri botched it and the upshot was a
very avoidable CFIT. Tafuri was apparently was one of AA's "star"
pilots (not entirely clear what maketh a star pilot). During an
approach to Cali, he had to key in the Rozo NDB on the FMC. He picked
the first name that came up on screen upon keying in "R" since the 757
FMC throws up the nearest waypoint first, without checking whether it
was indeed Rozo. On that night it wasn't, and he entered the
coordinates for an NDB called Romeo, causing the aircraft to make an 8
o'clock turn and on a course with a 10k ft mountain which they
impacted thereafter.

If after that error they'd somehow gotten off unscathed, whether
Tafuri's license would've been revoked is anyone's guess.

If there were no prior infractions then this
paragraph is a complete non sequitur.

Eh? The exact opposite, as I read it! It was *because* there were no
prior infractions that the "first error after yonks of safe flight,
ergo should be let off with a rap on the knuckles" line looks hard to
logically defend.

Ramapriya