It is always startling, though it probably shouldn't be, to be reminded that airline pilots are human beings. For anyone who is even slightly scared of flying, the process involves an unspoken contract: I'll pretend it's not profoundly absurd to expect a 400-tonne metal tube full of people to stay aloft at 11,000m, provided that you - aviation professionals in general, and pilots above all - pretend to be something between a robot and a deity.
It now seems clear that nobody was ever in any danger during the mid-air incident this week when the co-pilot of an Air Canada flight bound for Heathrow had to be dragged from the cockpit and restrained after suffering a breakdown, yelling and invoking God. For those not on the flight, however, that was almost beside the point. The facade of infallibility had been punctured. No matter how many times this happens - with every new tale of a pilot stopped before take-off with alcohol on his breath, or the story of the two Southwest Airlines pilots fired in 2003 for allegedly flying in the nude - it is always unsettling.
If you are made nervous by the idea that flight is an imperfect business, no less beset by human error and infighting and dysfunctional personalities than any other line of work, you should definitely avoid the Professional Pilots' Rumour Network (PPRuNe), an online forum which is, perhaps surprisingly, publicly accessible at www.pprune.org. But if you ignore this advice and visit anyway, you may find it difficult to leave.
The site's existence is hardly a secret: it's been around since the turn of the millennium, and its members are regularly quoted by journalists seeking insider reactions to crashes, near-misses and air-rage incidents. Yet for mere passengers (or "self-loading freight," to use the sardonic industry slang rife on PPRuNe), alighting upon it feels like illegitimately gaining access to a staff-only zone at the airport. Once inside, one may eavesdrop at will on the conversations of the forum's regulars, who include - as far as one can tell, since everyone's anonymous - pilots currently working for major airlines including BA, Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair and various American carriers.
Rumors arrive here first: "American 757 diverted: smoke in cabin," "Runway incursions in Dubai," "Monarch incident @ Manchester." Jargon is used, but then undercut to amusing effect: "Suspect nosewheel problem (no steering)." Within hours of this week's Air Canada incident, bar-room stories were being exchanged: "I had a similar episode once ... one minute we were discussing an electronic wiring issue and the next he was claiming to be Jesus Christ and offering to perform miracles."
Journalists - "these rats who work for the rags" - come in for unceasing hostility on PPRuNe, although sometimes it's not hard to see why. It is taken as read among forum regulars that some posters claiming to be pilots, asking innocently for the latest gossip, are actually from the media, and the resultant news coverage often leaves much to be desired. ("Pilot goes crazy on Heathrow jet," explained the London Evening Standard, showing a charming sensitivity to mental illness.) "I think people should be vetted before being allowed to visit this site," wrote one angry contributor, "and strictly limited to genuine aviation professionals."
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