March 26 - An Active Airline Pilot on the Germanwings Air Crash; An Aviation Safety Expert on the Downsizing of the Airline Pilot Profession; Outside Forces Escalate the Civil War in Yemen; "Why Yemen Has Come Undone"

Full Program

Part 1

We begin with the Germanwings A320 airliner that crashed Tuesday in the French Alps killing all 150 aboard, a tragedy that now appears to have been caused by the co-pilot who apparently locked the pilot out of the cockpit then deliberately downed the aircraft. An active airline pilot, Patrick Smith, the author of “Cockpit Confidential: Everything You Need to Know About Air Travel: Questions, Answers, and Reflections”, joins us to discuss why and how this crash happened and what can be done to prevent future incidents like this.

Part 2

Then we speak with David Gleave, a Chief Investigator for Aviation Safety Investigations and an expert with the Transport Research Group at Loughborough University in the U.K.  He joins us to discuss at least eight other similar incidents involving commercial aircraft and the downsizing of the profession of airline pilots who have become little more than aerial bus drivers today, many carrying huge debt from flying school, that with their low salaries, barely adds up to a living wage.

Part 3

Then we look into the escalation of the civil war in Yemen with the introduction of outside forces as Saudi Arabia threatens a land invasion and airstrikes are underway by warplanes from Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Jordan and Morocco, and naval help from Pakistan and Egypt is arriving off the port of Aden. Charles Schmitz, the former President of the American Institute of Yemeni Studies and a Professor of Geography at Towson University joins us to discuss the worsening situation.

Part 4

Then Jack Goldstone joins us. He is a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center of Scholars and a Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University who has an article at CNN “Why Yemen has come undone”. We discuss the failed U.S. policy of drone-bombing Yemen from the air while ignoring social instability on the ground in a fragile state about to fail that has the youngest and fastest growing population in the region and is running out of oil and water.