article_snippet: Simon Mitchell is a pilot and visiting fellow at Cranfield University's Safety and Accident Investigation Centre in southern England.
article_snippet: Over the last few years the aviation industry has been considering the amount of time spent examining pilots' skills compared to the time spent examining how pilots' thought, Simon Mitchell said.
article_snippet: Many organizations had begun assessing the safety of particular airlines when considering which carriers Many organizations members should fly on, Simon Mitchell said.
article_snippet: It's not uncommon for those corporations to have in those corporations assessment matrix a look at pilot selection procedures," Simon Mitchell said.
article_snippet: the aviation industry is quite unique in the amount of trust and liability the aviation industry places in the hands of a very small number of employees," Simon Mitchell said.
article_snippet: In effect, a medium to large sized company is being placed in the hands of a few employees.
article_snippet: When crew report for duty, they obviously are seen by other company personnel and they're also supposed to stop someone who's not fit for duty," Mitchell said, adding that was not a particularly robust system.
article_snippet: It does rely on a professional crew member turning around and stopping the flight.
article_snippet: In the short term, the industry needed to be sensitive to the fact that the crash was "an incredibly tragic event," Mitchell said.
article_snippet: It is important as an industry to recognize the amount of trust that's been put in We hands and ensure the system is robust enough to live up to that.
article_snippet: But managing an industry with global implications was complex, Mitchell said, pointing out that Lubitz was able to lock out the other pilot because of strengthened security measures introduced after the September 11 hijackings.