Military pilots would have superior manual flying skills and proven ability to stay calm and make the right decisions under highly stressful conditions.
Unlikely that they will panic and become completely incompetent when something goes wrong.
"In the case of Air France 447, it appears that Bonin, in his panic, completely forgot one of the most basic tenets of flight training: when at risk of a stall, never pull back on the controls. Instead, he held back the controls, in a kind of panicked death-grip, all the way down to the ocean. Ironically, if he had simply taken his hands away, the plane would have regained speed and started flying again."
Lots of really good replies to my question. "Staying calm" has been a shared thread. I looked up the pilot in the Quantas A380 near disaster, and it says of of the Captain de Crespigny's time in the RAAF:
"He went on to join the RAAF at age 17 in 1975. During his first training flight the instructor did not stop him from putting the plane into a downward spiral, after which he left de Crespigny to stop the plane from plummeting to the ground alone. The incident left him terrified but heightened his awareness of the dangers of complacency and human error in flight."
This team of pilots was able to bring back the largest passenger plane in the world back to a safe landing even after an engine effectively exploded and punctured the wing, fuel tanks, and fly-by-wire electronics.
So I am thinking that the next time I am on a plane, I hope the pilot has military training.
Unlikely that they will panic and become completely incompetent when something goes wrong.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/extreme-fear/201112/...
"In the case of Air France 447, it appears that Bonin, in his panic, completely forgot one of the most basic tenets of flight training: when at risk of a stall, never pull back on the controls. Instead, he held back the controls, in a kind of panicked death-grip, all the way down to the ocean. Ironically, if he had simply taken his hands away, the plane would have regained speed and started flying again."