Pilots have been making bad decisions since before the Wright brothers, and will continue to make bad decisions until they are completely replaced by computers.
We know how to mitigate that.- Have standards and procedures that keep pilots away from areas where a bad decision will be catastrophic.
- Have someone e.g. Chief Pilot, business owner etc. who will be on the hook if something does go wrong so they will be looking over the pilots shoulder, second guessing them etc (supervising) at least until they are satisfied with their decision making.
Angel Flight does not do that - they place all responsibility on the pilot.
Angel flight needs to work out how to reliably cancel flights when the weather is unsuitable. We know from 100 years of experience that you can't 100% rely on the pilot for this. Angel Flight are not going to change that, even with a web education module.
What I believe they need to do:
- Set conservative standards for day VFR flights, e.g. ETA no later than 1 hour before last light, cancel the flight if destination requires an alternate etc.
- The pilot phones Angel Flight before taking off, Angel Flight have the weather for the flight plus a report and ETA information from the pilot, and Angel Flight cancel if the weather is not up to standard.
These procedures would have almost certainly have meant that both accident flights would have been cancelled and Angel Flight would have an excellent safety record, instead of what is currently a very poor one.
I suspect Angel Flight resist this because inserting themselves in the decision making creates a liability problem. Perhaps they wouldn't be able to get insurance at all. It would be ironic, but not surprising, if insurance was preventing an improvement in safety.
No commercial pilot, not even the most experienced A380 captain, operates with the autonomy given to Angel Flight pilots.