The main reason for the miscommunication involved was that the pilot only spoke Spanish-he wasn't very good at English, and the F/O handled all communications.  The pilot relayed what he wanted to say in Spanish to the F/O, who then would contact ATC.

The pilot wanted to declare a fuel emergency, but the F/O kept requesting "priority, fuel low" which does not mean the same thing.

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This is, of course, the ideal situation.  But if we think in terms of aeronautical decision making under their conditions, it's not really applicable here, as it wasn't an option for them.  They were already knee deep in it.  Had to go with what they had, and a poorly executed ILS approach resulting in a go-around took up the rest of the fuel.

Right Charlie, of course.  I meant that if we were speculating on what we would do in their situation at that exact time, you couldn't really consider what they should've done, only the options you had.  Naturally, as you say, they shouldnt've been there in the first place but saying that doesn't help much when you're already there

Their alternate airport was even further more north than JFK.
also, the 707's autopilot was INOP so the pilot handflew the aircraft the whole route...this is of course  tiresome in the long stretch.

Saw the documentary a month ago and couldn't really believe the inept decision making of the captain.

And beefhole, paintball and human lives are in the same league   

Back to Fozzer's original question. How do airline pilots cope with the stress & responsibility of their job? This would depend on what you call stress. My job could be very stressful at times with a great deal of responsibilty attached to it. If I'd made a mistake it's possible that innocent people could have died due to my incompetence. While constantly aware if this, if I'd really thought about it I would never have been able to sleep at night but in fact I enjoyed the challenge. On the other hand there are some less responsible jobs that I just couldn't do because of the continual stress involved - dealing with customers on the telephone in the sales office for example. I've done this on a temporary basis but one week sat at that desk would have driven me right round the bend.

Some people thrive on stress & it gives them a buzz. I don't consider a commercial pilot's job as being particularly stressful but that's just my opinion. Different people are suited to different types of work which is just as well if you think about it.

If those words came from a Marine or any man who has served with the army and faced the drama of life and death...I would've believed them.

But you're just playing a game, which is lightyears away from what the crew had to deal with.

It's like those counter-strike fanatics who thinks they'd be a perfect fit as a SWAT member.

But flying day in and day out in commops isn't anything like the "drama of life and death."  If you do anything enough, it becomes just, I dunno, "regular."  Flying a 767 isn't really equatable to fighting a war on the front lines.

Actually come to think of it I'm not 100% sure what you were refering to, could you clarify?  If you were refering to paintball, I didn't say paintball was like war-I said decison making is decision making is decision making.

I think we're proving different points here