Georgemorris, I'm afraid that you have made me angry! As the British Ambassador says in the film Battle of Britain; "It's unforgivable, I lost my temper!". In this case though I do not go on to say; "And the truth of it is, he's right, you know", for you are wrong, Sir, totally and utterly and unforgivably wrong! Are we never to be rid of these car accident analogies, always being trotted out by probationary members pushing an agenda which has the whiff of 'Old' and 'Boys' about them? Well this old boy disputes your post from start to finish. Earswentpop has more than dealt with the glaring weaknesses in your submission, but my real spleen venting is directed at your revelation that:
I write because I have spent much of my life in the flight safety world and about 45 years of it flying aeroplanes
If this is the best you can come up with after such a seemingly glittering career then I am depressed, for my background would seem to be very similar though I can only boast of 40 years, but a similar interest/passion for Flight Safety. No philosophy as you espouse was ever taught me in all that time. As for:
The piloting community gets a pretty sympathetic hearing most of the time and we should not dissipate that goodwill by defending the indefensible
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Nobody is looking for sympathy in this thread, but simple justice. As for defending the indefensible, I would humbly propose that you would appear to be doing that, rather than those fighting the AM's infamous verdict!
Let Right Be Done!