Indonesian B737-500 goes missing, 5 mins after takeoff from Jakarta.

[old man emu]

Didn't some Asian carriers simply take their trainee pilots and stick them in the simulators for Boeings and Airbuses, etc., and teach them only to fly a particular aircraft, without having them go through the step-by-step learning scheme that most other countries require? In other words, those Asian pilots couldn't fly a puddle-jumper for love nor money. 

[facthunter]

There are "multicrew only" licences out there. I don't know what the current attitude to them is. "With it " airlines now like their pilots to  fly things like Stearmans  etc to do some actual flying.  Generally it's not considered the most safe to operate more than one advanced type at the same time for risk of confusion at critical times . They do have "cockpit similar" series that are flown concurrently. Nev