Powerful logic
Brian Abraham that is valuable information that we should all reflect on for a long long time. Probably the most valuable post I have ever seen on here.
On Sept 11th 2001? I was in Adelaide, watching those aircraft fly into the WT Centre. I had flown down to hear Professor James Reason speak at a breakfast meeting the following morning. (the only time I ever got a free feed from CASA. I had to fly 3000 km to get it.)
I remember very clearly that James Reason said emphatically and repetitively that the "blame game" was counter productive, and it is obviously damaging. It fixes nothing.
From another source, I remember the saying "I don't care who is to blame, I want to know who is going to fix it, and how"
We have to decide whether we are going on a witch hunt to find a politically convenient outcome of an investigation, or if we are genuinely trying to improve safety by finding the traps that the players fell into, and fixing them. This has been known since 1947, and it has been denied since 1947. It is being denied today. I heard a saying today "the fools are in charge, but the wise men are shouting louder".
Did Capt Collins know he was going to fly into a mountain? Of course not. He had a reputation as a competent, reliable, stable pilot, so we can reasonably assume that he considered what he was doing was safe. And when faced with information that challenged that safety he took steps to climb out. Too late. I think the CVR backs up that.
There is much evidence that Capt Collins was tricked by false information, and lack of essential knowledge about whiteout and visual tricks in that region.
It has been said that he descended below the level allowed by SOP's. It also appears that he had a long history as a safe, responsible pilot. Why then did he descend lower than the SOP'S permitted? Did he know the SOP's?.
Does this tell us something about the credibility of the SOP's
Powerful forces are involved. Air NZ was a government owned airline, and the regulator was the govt, and a large English insurance company, all had much deeper pockets than the pilots could ever have. The legal and financial possibilities were frightening.
Mr Chippendale did what he thought was right, and it was a convenient outcome for many. It followed the normal pattern of accident investigation, but was it right?
The other pilots and the Judge did not think so, and the final outcome was decided by their lordships in another country. A country where the big insurance company lived.
Many things could have been done better
but the NZ people are not silly and they quietly re-organised things. Today most of the people who were involved at the time of the Erebus crash have long gone. I had great respect for the head of the navigation section who stood up in court and said "I did it wrong". Air NZ is not a newcomer. They have been operating (earlier as TEAL) for more than half a century.
But the inappropriate, simplistic, military style administration system still prevails, in our society, and the knowledge which has been available to us since 1947 is still denied.
It's convenient for our administrators that way. That's why we have to have independent legal systems to pull them into line sometimes. Checks and balances.
And Air NZ operates today as a safe, respected airline, as it should, because someone challenged the system.
Last edited by bushy; 3rd October 2007 at 06:44.