How much does familiarity and comraderie contribute to the efficiency and safety of a commercial flight crew?

Long answer short, it can be a double-edged sword. Fly and coordinate your efforts like you were trained and it can be an asset, start getting sloppy because your buddy is in the other seat it can cause problems.

There is certainly a dividing line. There have been times when I was glad we all knew each other well and crowded around together off duty. There have been other times when icy professionalism saved our collective skin, and that of our passengers.

The first air cargo company I flew for, our company uniform was sweatshirts/t-shirts and baseball caps with company insignia. We socialized a lot and had lots of fun together. We were also all very mature, professional pilots who flew for a paycheck but mostly for the joy of herding those big old 4-engine piston airplanes around.

When a big black scorpion started crawling up my arm on short final at Athens, I was glad my FO was a friend who carried a big Bible in his chart case. He **Snapped** that book shut on the bug, and when we got to Athens, I bought him a new one.

But everybody knew their limits and boundaries, whereas if there had been a jerk in the crew it could have caused problems.

On the other hand, the company I flew big jet airliners for provided much more support infrastructure and expected much more in the way of non-fraternization and the appearance of professionalism. They more or less expected us NOT to be friends, and it was sort of natural because it was such a big operation. You might fly with the same people 2-3 times a year.

We told jokes and personal stories, but nobody played lonely hearts adviser, and we all snapped it up below 10,000 feet. It has to be that way if you are flying B-747s into Kai Tak at night. On the whole I think it is safer for crews to keep professional standards and not socialize very much.

I guess that makes a short answer long.

I can just tell you that the Tenerife airport disaster in 1977 happened because the first officer was too scared to tell his captain that maybe he understood something wrong ...

Being sloppy is bad, but being a big-head captain is dangerous as well !!!

none-were all pros