Well he had years and years of experience in other aircraft, and apparently pilots are asked to fly new aircraft pretty regularly. He did have a co-pilot, but they're suggesting there may have been hesitation to critique his flying because of embarrassment or awkwardness or something. I don't remember the specific words but CNN said something to that effect.
You don't get to be a hero based on what group you're a part of, you're a hero based on your individual actions. A firefighter isn't a hero by default, but after he climbs out of a burning building coughing up smoke with an old lady slung over his shoulder, yeah, he's a hero.
you can still be a hero while being an unsavory character. One doesnt negate the other
The correct response is you can perform heroic acts without being a hero. The military contains heroes, but not everyone in it is a hero. Same with firefighters, cops, paramedics, and any other "rescue" organization.
Some might say that being willing to run into a burning building at the possible cost of your life is a heroic action, or that giving up years of your life to protect your country's interests is heroic. I suppose the very definition of what one considers heroic changes from person to person. A comic book Villain will have a different view of Heroic than the "Hero".
Anyone with a job, probably.
As someone who was not only in the military, but in what lots of people call an "elite" community, I'm to go ahead and say that you can't make blanket statements about people being heroes based on their job description. Heroes are people who act out of selflessness during times of distress. Being in a community doesn't automatically dictate how you will act.
As with all accidents like this, it'll come down to several humans doing a mind-bottlingly large number of stupid things over a sustained period to end up in this situation. The co-pilot had several thousand hours on the plane, so he was supposed to be watching over things. And regardless of the specific plane type, most commercial airliners have almost identical approach speeds and angles. The plane was coming in way the fuck too slow, and way the fuck too steep. Maybe the plane had different instrumentation that the inexperienced pilot was having trouble with, but angle/rate of descent and airspeed are not exactly rocket science.
I think maybe you can. You may not agree with this example, but it'll give you an idea of what I mean.
