Ditto… great essay!
It always aggravating when some clueless armchair aviator on one of the ‘idiot with microphone’ news networks makes wild and careless claims regarding an accident or incident. Even worse are those who are actually pilots analyzing (OK, guessing) about ‘what went wrong’ when they don’t know any more than the rest of us.
Again, very refreshing viewpoint by Kevin…
Nice points Kevin. Thanks for the article.
I was briefly the pilot hiring guy, z(20 years ago)accompanied by an HR Rep at my outfit. I was supposed to ask the tech questions, so I did. You know, “what happens when you pull the fire handle on your current aircraft” and stuff like that.
My interview questions today, with 5 months left 121, would involve getting an just an inkling that “the most important part of being an FO at Brand X is the trust the hundreds of people are placing in you to conduct yourself to the best of your abilities, even when bored at cruise, you should know the left engine vibration number without looking, after all , those 250 people all have thousands of loved ones, and they’re all trusting you” Alas, the Rogaine bills are piling up, and my attitude has changed dramatically.
Truly spoken. When working for the local airline pilots‘ association we constantly got asked after accidents and incidents and carefully tried to give statements in support of safety and the pilot profession without second-guessing the crews but media that start the evening news with a statement that the cause of the morning crash „is still unknown“ rarely want a serious discussion.
There’s another line to “it’s better to die than to look bad”: “but you can do both”
Naval Safety Center published (still does?) weekly “funnies” along the lines of “the senior officer was balancing on one foot from the top of a ladder with a chainsaw…” it was a reminder as you stepped past the warnings on your ladder that you could also make the “funnies”.
The somewhat brutal warning in that line is that aviation has enough pitfalls without adding stupid risks of your own creation.
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Let’s hope every AVWEB reader reads this. Thanks Kevin.
Kevin- So well said. The way you describe what happens during the situation - and what happens afterwards - is right on target. And as for those “commentators,” I couldn’t agree more! Thank you for what writing about what most of us silently think.
While I don’t agree with “armchair” analysis that makes headlines or social media clicks, what I do appreciate is a discussion of the facts and potential reasons for a situation, configuration, or circumstance by knowledgeable people in a forum like this.
It’s helpful to hear from a pilot with time in type to explain the systems, what they’ve experienced in their career and their opinions. It’s helpful to hear about airport/runway configuration rules. It’s helpful to hear about what was observed in a video that may have gone unnoticed. I hope a forum like this is geared to that type of discussion.
To me, it’s like “chair flying”. What might I have done or done differently given the situation faced? What could have led to that decision or outcome?
If posed the right way, discussion of the facts, with a healthy dose of ‘we don’t know yet’, even when all the conclusions aren’t able to be discerned, is a good exercise. But, let’s keep it out of the general media.
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“seriously killed” - got a chuckle out of that!
I once read an article about a psychological study where the researchers wanted some insight into the thoughts and actions of a person who believes he is about to die.
There are ethical challenges in setting up a laboratory study like this, so they turned to a different resource–cockpit voice recordings from aircraft accidents.
The researchers concluded they could not get anything meaningful from this study, because what they heard was two professionals analyzing, discussing, and doing all they could to rectify the situation. No panic, no freezing up, no thought of their own personal fate.
Just trying to understand and fix the problem.
As one of few pilots in my circle of friends, I’m often asked, “what do you think happened?” I learned a long time ago to respond, “I really don’t know.” For one thing, my half century plus of experience is all in small airplanes, so I have no clue what happens in airliners, and for another and more important thing, I wasn’t there. I’ve lost friends in aviation tragedies, and I lost my own father in one. I wish I knew what happened in each case, but the best answer is still, “I really don’t know.”
Many people feel the way you do, but I still see it as wrong. Why not wait until the NTSB report and then armchair fly the problem when you know the facts? Anything else, in my opinion, is voyeurism.
I like you addition to the saying and will include that from not on. thanks, kg
I was teaching the DC9 to a group of Alaska pilots a few years ago. They said they were approached by a Reality TV producer to do a show on their company. After flying with them for a few days, the producer said he could not use them because they never fought or freaked out in the cockpit or on the ground—boring for the TV audience.
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Sometimes, repressing your emotions is a good thing
Easy to agree on this one. Some years ago, while attempting to become the youngest to fly around the world, a student and his instructor crashed when taking off in a 45 kn wind. Almost immediately a moron with an ABC affiliate on scene said the NTSB would investigate to see if the plane was going fast enough to keep the engine running. I understand that. I do it every day on the expressway.
I cringe when I see an “expert” CIA agent on a History Channel show about disasters mention the “tail wing,” or “not enough wind over the wing caused the engines to stall,” or show flaps pivoting UP in an animation. I wonder why they pay their editors. Spoils the whole show for me.
As an A&P I know what a jacked-up jackscrew does to the elevator and a hydraulics blowout systems can do, but I prefer to hear what the NTSB fat lady sings. Even if I am right, does that save 175 lives? No.
We see this here too. After a four-paragraph article, I can verify when someone emerges from Mom’s basement and uses the deadly “obviously” they are full of BS. If you can look at a video with a twisted pile of aluminum and say “I KNOW what caused this,” you need to work for NTSB. Both Lincoln and Mark Twain are credited with “It is better to remain silent and though of as a fool than open your mouth and prove them right.”
I enjoyed this essay, because it acknowledges that a lot goes through the average head when the handbasket to hell is picking up passengers. The 737 Max experience proves this. The movie “Sully” hammered home the point when the investigators knew everything about everything, correctly reacted instantly in simulations and judged he could have landed safely. Sully’s testimony showed what the crew had to analyze and do-- NOW – to make decisions around the realization that they have no power and are over one very densely populated area.
Not surprised. “Reality TV” is NEVER real. Something just randomly happens and is caught on camera, properly edited and perfectly framed. Yeah, reality, my royal Canadian ass.
Well said Kevin… great wisdom too! None of us KNOW what we would do, how we would act and react in these crisis situations we armchair pontificate about post wreck. We just THINK we know. Having dealt with a couple of inflight emergencies which outcomes allow me to comment today, the denial of the situation is actually happening is WAY, WAY stronger than most can imagine. But similarly, when that denial turns to action… decisive, intentional action…the outcome can be and more often is, a good enough one, that we can feel the fear, get PTSD from, cry an intense cry, and mature…. Including choosing to shut up until we get more data.
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As an admirer of Alan Shepard at least as much as any other astronaut, I can say I have said what Alan Shepard has said on at least several other occasions. Thinking a problem existed, but after additional scanning and thought, one or more alternatives presented themselves to alleviate the potential problem. Hallelujah! Icing, windshear, cross wind landings come to mind immediately. Cross wind landings have become nearly easy. Windshear and icing, having happened only a couple of times in over 50 years of flying will always be a consideration. High and hot, landings on the second half of a long runway has always been the plan after landing short in Tonopah, NV, Labor Day week end, 1985. Just made the airport perimeter going through the airport permitter fence and denting the left strut about 2/3rds up. Was not a big dent, but the A/I at the next annual insisted on replacing the strut. Having the dent was a good reminder of what happened. So getting rid of the dented strut was not first choice. And, my wife was with me and said, Oh my God, we are going to die. I respond shut up, I need to land this aircraft. And did. No other problems. A mechanic on the field over the holiday; I was astounded; but looked over the aircraft after I did and could not find a problem. So we flew home to Tracy, CA; at the time. And we filled up the gas tanks at Tonopah and did not run out of gas. Filled up 32 gallons useable on 35 gallon useable tanks. It was a humid day and we were high to avoid the bumps and came down quick from 12,000 feet MSL, carb ice is the best guess, since it was gone on the ground; the plane started right up to taxi to the gas pumps. Yes I did pull the carb ice control, no response, before the engine quit. The airport sent me a bill for the fence I went through, believe it or not! I showed the bill to my boss, and he said he would take care of it. To this day, I do not know if he paid them or told them what they could with their bill! My boss is gone, dying in 2016, I believe, but with me forever. After this event, my wife took pilot training and received a private pilot license; 90 hours of flying and 400 landings. I have 1000 hours and 500 landings; our private joke. She is the landing expert. Cessna 172s forever!
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I had my first engine out in 28 years, not my FIRST, just in 28 years…, total and sudden, at 1500’. I was pleased (ecstatic really) afterwards to see how I responded to it, ignoring hay fields right under me, (too close to a highway, too public) while gliding to a field a few miles away that would offer privacy once landed. Stupid? Maybe, but I easily made it with altitude to spare, and didn’t make the local news that day, as that was my main concern, knowing I had the landing made.
Of course they can be wrong. What makes them right? Or wrong? …and what if they are? Tell us oh wise and powerful Tommy, is it up to you to question their findings?
There I was…and everybody lived happily ever after.
Yes.
Note the NTSB seems short-staffed these days, perhaps worse in another of the government funding freezes which certainly motivate experienced employees to retire.
I am going to be contrary. Among ourselves at least I eat up all the comments and speculations about what went wrong and sift through them for the sensible ones to add to my mental store of THINGS NOT TO DO.
Re being scared: I had an engine fail and ended up in a field. A reporter asked me if I was scared or felt like a hero. I said no to both of those, I was too busy using my training to solve the problem. In my mind scared was for later, like what if the engine quit at night over mountains instead of daylight over a farm are things you think about once the plane is parked. Being a hero would imply I had a parachute but selflessly stayed in the airplane to save my passengers. I did not, my own butt was on line too! I guess you mentally say to yourself “You have done this 100 times, now just do it again for real like you know how to do”.