JimL,
Great post mate. Really interesting and informative stuff. If only all the posts on this forum were so...
I understand JimBall's concern but the perception of 'news' is a fascinating one. By definition, 'news' must be 'newsworthy' or no one would watch or read it.
Just sit down and try and watch some local news in a regional area and you'll see what I mean. Often the news goes into the mundane or everyday and therefore doesn't constitute news as we understand it.
Consequently, to make the news, an item must be out of the ordinary normally speaking. Because so many incidents occur, and because the result of these are for the most part (thank goodness!) resolved without significant injury to personnel or damage to aircraft, they become less newsworthy perhaps, but no less important in terms of lessons learned or safety systems requiring implementation to prevent a reoccurrence.
Instead, we should be glad that the number of 'newsworthy' accidents is relatively low as these accidents represent something other than the everyday. As soon as we start having accidents at the rate we have car accidents for instance, air related accidents will cease to be of interest to anyone, including the press, and yet the real consequences in terms of injury or loss of life will far greater.
Someone once said (and I paraphrase here), "If it makes the news, it's not something one should be concerned with as it rarely happens. It's all the stuff that doesn't get mentioned we should be worried about!"
Perhaps then it's for the best that the stuff we should be really concerned with is handled by experts a la JimL and not the press (or some of our not so well informed PPRuNer's).
Papa68
