Don’t stop accident reporting. We learn from failures, not successes.
Or the one below.
I’m not crazy but I do look up when I hear a plane to make sure it is not crashing on me.
It is oft said that no one has invented a new way to have an accident. Spent 40 years putting bread on the table through sitting in seat 0A and now 18 years retired and still an avid reader reader of the reports. Thing to remember is that there is a new crop of aviators continually graduating yet to learn the pitfalls that lurk, they have yet to fill the bag of experience without emptying the bag of luck. The saying “learn from the mistakes of others because you won’t live long enough to make them all yourself” is a truism, but I found during my career the trouble was remembering all those lessons. The hard drive between the ears only has so much space. Keep publishing Paul.
Aviation Accident Reporting is sort of a Man Bites Dog means for news outlets to spark interest in their papers, online channels, television news stations (If it bleeds, it leads. And they’re always quick to flash their “BREAKING NEWS” logos to pique our curiosity.) and radio channels. The more catastrophic the crash, the more time these ‘journalists’ will spend on the tragedy, with updates, “Expert” analysis and friends/family members/eyewitnesses relating their stories and videos. That’s their business. What should concern us pilots and accident studying types entails the amount of time it takes to determine what caused the crash, and whether the FAA will get involved with EADs, Bulletins and regulatory changes–even grounding the fleet of aircraft types that crashed. I don’t see sensationalizing these tragedies as being needed, but the aviation community needs to be apprised of what they’ll be subjected to in the wake of a major mishap.
“He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.”
― Confucius or Grasshopper
“You have to be crazy to be a pilot and insane to actually own a plane. ‘-)”
Crazy? I’ll give you crazy. Starting with: more Californians, Floridians, and Texans own private aircraft than residents in the other 47 states. The three are also the most active states for general aviation.
-Mr. Google
One facet of aviation accident reporting is the detection of trends. Recently, aircraft have crashed during approaches in IMC, or while enroute in weather. Since the NTSB will keep their causal cards close to their vest during their investigations, we won’t get an official evaluation on those mishaps. However, the trend is that weather is getting wintry, with cloud bases coming down to approach minimums. As the videos of these tragedies show, the planes departed controlled flight, and descended vertically to the ground. Communications with the pilots usually were routine, though a couple of crashes did include distress calls. It may be a trend I’ve noticed, and studied for quite a while: Pilots aren’t proficient, because they’re not flying their planes. Once they pickle the computer couplings, they can’t keep the bird upright in IMC (Sometimes in VMC!) The FAA f-i-n-a-l-l-y recognized said trend, and they’re trying to coax pilots to at least train for manual flights in all regimes. Let’s hope that trend will have an effect on aviation safety.
When I was in the Bay Area I’d just say, ‘N95936 request VFR flight following bay tour.’
Accidents are cheap filler for news sites. It’s weird how endless analysis of accidents doesn’t fill motorcycle or boat news sites. Its always editorial policy driving the fixation on dangers of flying.
I read them hoping to learn from the mistakes on others rather than my own. For most of my life I rode dirt bikes. For years I heard fellow riders opine that they know the risks and accept them. Until they had a bad crash. Then, some of them came back and some didn’t. That’s when you could separate the ones who actually accepted the risks. I was in a plane crash that nearly killed me. I have another plane now.