Worst Airline Blunders of 2011

Most of these have nothing to do with flying. Just fruitcakes dealing with fruitcakes or someone's big mouth. The real blunders are never reported if they don't get caught.

I'm guessing we don't know the worst blunders.

What annoyed me about this sloppy article was that I really wanted to know the circumstances: who overheard the pilot's comment? Where? Over the PA? Getting off the plane? No amount of clicking through made me any the wiser.
Journalism 101: Who, What, Where, When, and Why?

To the guy who says pilots should know when to take themselves off the roster: Where have you been? How are they supposed to make a living under the current circs? Eh?

Hmmm, a disproportionate number of the blunders came from SWA. Makes me really wonder about their corporate culture that these incidents take place so often and SWA is left having to save face.

I don't know about SWA corporate culture but I have flown Soutwest a lot and almost all of their crew act like they enjoy being there. As compared to say United.

In all the articles I've read about Pilot sleep deprivation they without exception "blame" the company for all the problems. Pilots know when they are eligible and therefor when they may be tapped to perform. Some of the problem and therefor the solution rests with us. Part oft he preparation for doing our job is to make sure we have adequate rest and understand how the body reacts to fatigue and lack of sleep. It ain't all the dispatcher. If your eligible to fly it's the responsibility of all of us not to give in to the temptation to fight boredom by staying active. That might mean not going to an ANG meeting or putting in mandatory time while your liable to be called for a flight. It might mean not going to an amusement park for 12 hours with the kids when your on call. It's the pilots responsibility to maintain his or her own readiness and not put those 12 to 400 passengers behind you at risk when you are drowsy and not on top of your game. When you gamble with your time you gamble with peoples lives. I've had the opportunity to talk to some "over the road" and local truckers and they have some lessons to pass on to all of us. Hours of service and enforcement are foremost in their world and they understand what it takes to stay ready. Today's equipment all but flys itself, but stuff goes wrong like it did for AF447. It seems at least one pilot was fatigue enough to be off the flight deck. As it happens he was the command pilot.