Lead zepplin,
Thank you. I could not get the first link to function. Would you please try again?
The second link was informative, thanks for including it.
TO fokker and the others:
I have no problem with criminal sanction of such things as operating aircraft under the influence of alcohol or drugs. However, criminal penalties for "pilot error" should not be sanctioned.
In the United States, ALPAUS has managed to preclude, in so far as I know, the filing of criminal charges at the Federal level as a consequence of aircraft accidents where pilot error is alleged or suspected. I believe that is true in most State courts as well. Police officers and District attorneys know next to nothing about aviation matters. Neither do judges or juries 99% of the time. A "fair" trial would be virtually impossible.
Perhaps the concept of a "fair trial" is lost on some nationalities but that is not a reason to subject US citizens to practices of those jurisdictions. Since we fly "abroad" it is in our interest to stop the practice of criminal indictment of errant pilots wherever possible. If we cannot avoid this in a country like Canada, what will we do if it happens in Lagos or Rydah and one suddenly finds himself subject to Islamic "law". Maybe you would like to be sentenced under Sharia to 150 lashes, spend 10 years in an Istambul dungeon or try your luck in a Rawandan prison. Would you like to be the JAL Captain who just went through hell in Tokyo because one of his flight attendants died in a clear air turbulence encounter?
If criminal indictments and sanctions cannot be precluded, there will be no cooperation whatever from pilots involved in any incident/accident, CB's on CVRs and FDRs will be routinely pulled, and accident investigation set back for years.
The subjective nature of "pilot error" detirminations also does not lend itself to criminal prosecution. Criminal prosecution is applicable to deliberate acts voluntarily committed. It should not be applicable to accidents resulting from human error.
ALPAUS and IFALPA as well have actively sort to avoid the same in countries other than the USA. I support that position.
Let us hope that those of you so quick to condemn never find youselves behind bars due to an operational error that you may one day make.