Ethics, public safety and safety in the world of aviation.

FreeEmotion July 12, 2019 at 10:47 1700 views 3 comments

As an aviation enthusiast, and a fan of design engineering, I continue to be troubled by the approach by some parties to aviation safety especially general aviation.

My concern broadly can be summarized as follows: stop using the term "Pilot Error" and stop blaming the pilot. Pilots are fallible, that is why we have safety systems. I believe most of the effort should be focused on the regulatory and technical framework in order to stop pilots from making errors, especially those that could result in injury, or could have resulted in injury. Instead they talk of 'training'. But you cannot train someone to be responsible.

Some published articles bear me out:

Quoting Philip Greenspun

What is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) doing to improve general aviation safety? Not as much as it could. For example, as a pilot it is very nice to know about the portion of the earth over which one is flying. How high is the terrain underneath me? Over to the left? If I am forced to start descending out of the clouds due to ice forming on my wings, which way should I go for maximum terrain clearance? Are there any radio transmission towers nearby that I might hit? All of these questions are answered by reference to paper charts called "sectionals" published by the FAA. A new small airplane in 2002 comes equipped with large high resolution color displays and powerful computers but cannot show the pilot answers to any of these questions. A pilot planning a cross-country trip must juggle about 20 of these charts in the cockpit and constantly plot his or her position on the paper chart, while dividing attention between the displays on the panel and the paper

Quoting THOMAS P. TURNER

But you will be as safe as the circumstances that arise in the conditions you choose to face will permit. It’s up to you to make a masterful decision about the conditions, and be ready to masterfully handle any circumstances you then face.

Comments (3)

FreeEmotion July 12, 2019 at 10:56 #306282 0 likes

Then there is the style of reporting of popular media that tends to report plane crashes and imply that flying is unsafe:

The article leads one to believe that general aviation is an unsafe form of transportation, but in truth, general aviation has demonstrated significant progress in safety. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the number of fatalities has declined by over 40 percent since the early 1990s. Of course mentioning that sort of fact would have undermined reporter Tom Frank’s narrative; you won’t find those statistics in his piece,” AOPA said.

FreeEmotion July 12, 2019 at 11:07 #306286 0 likes

Here is a case in point: who is responsible? If it the regulators, then they should be taken to task. If it is the pilot, then the regulators should either wash their hands of the whole affair since no laws could have prevented this accident, or make up laws and regulations to stop this from hapenning, for example, deny take off clearance in such conditions.

The non-instrument-rated private pilot departed his home airport with three family members on a cross-country visual flight rules (VFR) flight over mountainous terrain. The forecast weather conditions called for instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) and mountain obscuration due to clouds, precipitation, and mist along the route of flight and at the accident site. The co-owner of the airplane, who held an instrument rating, had reviewed the pilot's flight plan and the forecast weather conditions two days before the accident and informed the pilot that he should drive to his destination as the weather would not allow for VFR flight.

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/192521

Under these conditions it does not make sense to me to count this as a general aviation accident but as an ethical issue. I mean to disrespect to the pilot or passengers, but can I ask the question?

fresco July 12, 2019 at 11:09 #306289 0 likes

As long as 'pilots' have ultimate control over a plane's technology, then they can validly said to be 'in error' when that control was inadequate. Given current technological advances it might be interesting to do a survey on whether or not passengers would choose the potential option of having a pilot at all. I think I would!