Originally Posted by
43Inches
Pilot incapacitation has more far reaching implications than just simple pilot error. The whole AvMed premise of restricting medicals is based on the rates of accidents attributed to incapacitation, so the higher the rate, the more justification to place more restrictions and tests on pilots, which don't make flying any safer as we all know underlying conditions that tend to kill you stone dead are very hard to detect, even heart attacks occur over time. A stroke is almost impossible to predict and could be the result of you sitting watching TV too long the night before in an awkward position. And personally I don't 'want' to find an answer, I want to know the answer, no matter what it is. Whatever the truth is here will add to the learning files for all who come after, so squeezing the accident into one cause that is what everyone wants to hear is not going to help stopping it again.
If it turns out it was "pilot incapacitation", frankly I don't see how the same thing happening in a car travelling at 100kmh on a typical country road wouldn't end with exactly the same outcome (apart from the typical negative press coverage and CASA overreaction, that is).
It'd just be another "family of four dies wrapped around a tree" on the nightly news, an increase in the road accident statistics for the month, and that'd be the end of it.