According to Outliers: The Story of Success from Malcolm Gladwell, more crashes are due to the captain than the first officer. He claims that the reason is that the captain ignore the warnings the first officer gives.
While this may explain things, is it the only reason? Or are there other reasons, like the fact that when the situation become dangerous, the more experienced one take control of commands?
The book seems to take one real example, but are there any statistics to prove that it's the general case and not the exception?
When you are on board an aircraft, “This is the captain speaking” may well sound more reassuring than a message from the first officer. Yet crashes happen far more often when the captain, rather than the co-pilot, is flying the aircraft. This is counter-intuitive, since captains almost always have more flying experience than co-pilots.
The reason, says New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell in an alarming chapter of Outliers, is cultural. When the captain is flying, the first officer tends to defer, even when he or she suspects danger, while the captain does not hesitate in seizing the controls from …
ps: I don't own the book, so it may be better explained in it.
