Lessons to learn??????
1. As long as skill and capability are secondary considerations when deciding if someone is capable of doing the job, then people will get killed and machinery destroyed.
2. Helicopters operate in a dynamic environment that is difficult (if not impossible) to script and/or simulate.
3. Just because you were up to the job last year does NOT mean you are up to it this year.
4. Lack of integrity in this business can kill not just you, but your 'mates' as well.
5. There will always be someone in the system who will push profit over safety.
6. Dealing with the man in #5 keeps the rest of us honest.
7. We can't change Africa (or human nature) but we can honestly learn about it and deal with it.
8. Africa is no worse than the rest of the world would be with the slightest relaxation of diligence.
9. The moral high ground is a lonely place, with no cover or protection from the predators.
10. Someone who constantly makes unrealistic demands will then have his realistic requests ignored outright.
11. Someone who regularly makes realistic requests will then have his unrealistic demands considered.
and last but not least by a long shot......
12. I owe it to my wife and kids to come home alive at the end of the tour, with or without a job to go back to.