B Sousa
You said
I wouldnt be so quick to jump on the FAA, the rules are out there. The FAA are regulatory, not criminal investigators.
Problems like this most always end up in Civil Court.
The rules are out there!
Are these operators breaking the law?
The FAA are regulatory!
Then it is thier responsibility to Regulate to prevent such risks.
Problems like this always end up in court!
Usually because someone has Died.
The role of a good regulator is to be Proactive and not Reactive
I am a realist and I have been flying for over fifteen years now, and I dont expect pilots in this very competitive and macho industry to individually set personal dispatch criteria that would make them uncompetitive within there sphere of thier operations.
In this dog eat dog world of offshore support, a pilot with higher than most dispatch minima ie (Wx/, A/c , defered defects,Support/logistics etc.) would find themselves the least likely to be employed by operators who will only take note safety when forced to do so.
Likewise I dont expect operators to set dispatch criteria uncompetitively higher than thier compittors, this has to be the role of the regulators and if the rules called for twin IFR ops then ALL would comply and profit margins would still be the same, but there would I feel be far less loss of lives.
I dont offer Twins/IFR ops as a panacea to prevent all accidents but looking at the appalling attrition rates in the GOM area it would certainly improve your particular problem.
