Criminalisation of Accidents
From Avweb today. Post for info in light of recent developements re Brazil and Indonesia. Mods may wish to merge.
Criminal Conversation
The Flight Safety Foundation plans to discuss criminal prosecutions in the wake of aircraft accidents at its European Aviation Safety Seminar March 10-12, in Bucharest, Romania.
"We are very concerned about increasing attempts by prosecutors to turn accidents into crime scenes and to prosecute aviation professionals based on tragic mistakes," said William R. Voss, president and CEO of the foundation. "Overzealous prosecutions threaten to dry up vital sources of information and jeopardize safety."
The panel will be moderated by Kenneth Quinn, the foundation's general counsel, a partner at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Pillsbury Winthrop and former chief counsel for the FAA. Over the years Quinn has represented several aviation companies involved in grand jury investigations after accidents and served as counsel to SabreTech, which faced federal criminal hazardous material charges and State of Florida murder and manslaughter charges in the wake of the ValuJet Flight 592 crash in May 1996.
More recently, Brazil has indicted two American charter pilots whose aircraft was involved in a collision with a 737 over the Amazon in 2006.