Rubick101,
unfortunately I do find your comments childish as you have written, as a part of a sentence, the next:
if a uniformly harsh and critical approach to criminal negligence was adopted universally, flying would ultimately be a safer industry
the text above is a copy paste of your original post and I understand you may have wanted to give it a broader sense. However that is what you have written. And even reading the full sentence its meaning and intention do not change.
So, most accidents are mistakes are they? We have now reduced the discussion to a banal and childish argument.
Well, that's why accidents are called accidents.
Definition: An accident is a specific, identifiable, unexpected, unusual and unintended external event which occurs in a particular time and place, without apparent cause but with marked effects. It implies a generally negative probabilistic outcome which may have been avoided or prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence.
Definition: A ‘mistake' is an error caused by a fault: the fault being misjudgment, carelessness, or forgetfulness.
In short, whilst operating an aircraft there may be signs of an accident waiting to happen and if not seen before one could argue that somebody has made a mistake (by either one of the above faults).
Now If somebody was actually wanting and acting for the accident to happen it wouldn't have been an accident but a sabotage, act of suicide, murder, or any other and depending on the carachter at play. I do not believe this was the case and so the investigation should reveal.
What, as said before, worries me is the fact that when people misjudge or forget (which happens to all of us as we're just human) could be taken to trial as they'd be taken to trial for being human; no more, no less. Carelessness falls, IMHO in a different category.
I was driving through the red light when I hit and killed the child but it was a mistake. I didn't intend to kill her and I want you to let me go because it was actually a mistake, no matter what the photographic evidence shows
Actually a very good example indeed. What if a wasp had come in the car, stung you and you loss control of the car, driving through the red light? Or if you had a stroke and couldn't control yourself, let alone the car? Or if you didn't see the red light due to a distraction? or there was a malfunction in the traffic light system? or, or...
you see, it's not just black or white: there's that many greys. A friend of mine works as support staff for the York police department and she is appalled of seeing so many cases when middle class, hard working, well respected citizens involve themselves in ACCIDENTS and end up in jail because there was loss of life. What good does that make? You get a regular John with bad luck ending up surrounded by real criminals and having to adapt to that environment for years...great service to society we're doing by turning a working guy into another convict.
A.