By no stretch of the imagination am I an airline pilot. I do have 35 years in aviation as a Canadian bush pilot and much later as a Civil Aviation Inspector. So I have some technical knowledge in this area and some training in CRM.
In my humble opinion, this is not a movie for the general public. It's just way too confusing. If nothing else, these cockpit voice recordings show how very limiting a CVR recording can be. Without any background information on the event being vocalized, it's just a bunch of folks in the cockpit screaming at one another at times. I'm a little bewildered why this film is receiving such high marks in some aviation circles. Without some form of analysis, a voice over for example, it fails miserably as Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) tool.
First - what would help this movie is a split screen. The top half would be the CVR recordings and the lower half would be a computer generated animation of what is happening outside the aircraft and some other exterior references. That might help the general viewer figure out just what the heck is going on - like is depicted in MAYDAY episodes.
Second - It also suffers from poor production value. The same crew(s) are used too frequently wearing the same uniforms in the very same "cockpit". At times the drone of the engines almost mask out the dialogue. Some subtitling would have come in handy with every chapter since it's very difficult to understand the crews when they are on communicating at the verge of utter panic.
Third - The "reveal" at the end of the chapter fails to explain why the aircraft lost control or the accident in some cases. What the heck just happened?! In essence the viewer is now forced to discuss the incident with a knowledgeable colleague or search out the incident on the internet. So then - what was the point.
I really was looking forward to viewing my rental of this movie but if you're seeking an understanding of what can, what has and what will go wrong in a cockpit, or other aspects to aircraft operation, then watch the many MAYDAY episodes available in YouTube. Sorry folks, it's a valiant effort but not good enough - 2 out of 10.
Chris Gartner, Winnipeg Canada, January 2015
In my humble opinion, this is not a movie for the general public. It's just way too confusing. If nothing else, these cockpit voice recordings show how very limiting a CVR recording can be. Without any background information on the event being vocalized, it's just a bunch of folks in the cockpit screaming at one another at times. I'm a little bewildered why this film is receiving such high marks in some aviation circles. Without some form of analysis, a voice over for example, it fails miserably as Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) tool.
First - what would help this movie is a split screen. The top half would be the CVR recordings and the lower half would be a computer generated animation of what is happening outside the aircraft and some other exterior references. That might help the general viewer figure out just what the heck is going on - like is depicted in MAYDAY episodes.
Second - It also suffers from poor production value. The same crew(s) are used too frequently wearing the same uniforms in the very same "cockpit". At times the drone of the engines almost mask out the dialogue. Some subtitling would have come in handy with every chapter since it's very difficult to understand the crews when they are on communicating at the verge of utter panic.
Third - The "reveal" at the end of the chapter fails to explain why the aircraft lost control or the accident in some cases. What the heck just happened?! In essence the viewer is now forced to discuss the incident with a knowledgeable colleague or search out the incident on the internet. So then - what was the point.
I really was looking forward to viewing my rental of this movie but if you're seeking an understanding of what can, what has and what will go wrong in a cockpit, or other aspects to aircraft operation, then watch the many MAYDAY episodes available in YouTube. Sorry folks, it's a valiant effort but not good enough - 2 out of 10.
Chris Gartner, Winnipeg Canada, January 2015