Here's the Deal
You see, when Captain Stanley Key agreed to pilot this direct flight to Brussels, he wasn't introduced to his co-pilot prior. He didn't think that this was a big deal since the vast majority of co-pilots he had worked with through British Airways were extremely well trained. He was in store for quite the surprise...
The Scourge of the Industry
Just three days before Key was scheduled to fly flight 548, he found out that his scheduled co-pilot wasn't particularly experienced at all. In fact, his co-pilot, who's name was Jeremy Keighley, had only spent about 22 hours in the cockpit of a plane.
British Airways was using Key to train this dummy, without asking him, because he was so experienced they figured that Keighley would pick up some passive information along the way. Key absolutely lost his mind about the situation. He couldn't pilot a plane with a rookie like this. He couldn't trust an inexperienced co-pilot to fly him to safety if something were to happen...