Spanair accident at Madrid

[justme69]

DISCLAIMER: this post is a theoretical rant.

Well, let's assume for a second (and I personally do not believe this is the case, it's just for the sake of conversation) that indeed the two engineers that did the "repairs" did their jobs carelessly and, as a result, they contributed to an accident that, should they have done their jobs as expected, the accident would've been likely avoided.

Again, just for the sake of this conversation.

Then, I wouldn't call the judge indicting them with criminal negligency "low rank scapegoating". After all, in that theoretical case, they would've done something punishable, right? I mean, the guys hold a degree in engineering, a vaild license for servicing these aircrafts and yet, the judge proves, they did their jobs without regards to the rules and neccesary diligence, resulting in loss of lives.

Also, the judge is indicting the head of maintenance for the whole Spanair, a "high ranking" position, in case he was pressing his subordinates into doing a bad job. A person that wasn't even aware at all that the repair took place, as he is only notified when the airplane is "out of service" and this one, technically, never was, as it was deemed to suffer a minor issue, a simple RAT probe heater that wasn't even needed for this flight in good weather "failing".

So no, *IF* they technicians did something wrong, I do not think the judge is acting wrongly. What's more, he is putting on the line just as well the highest ranked person in charge with supervising the maintenance operation for the whole Spanair.

Who else do you want him to charge? The head of human resources that hired them for not realizing they weren't "good" but careless technicians? The CEO of SAS airlines for not overseeing the acts of every single technician working (or subcontracted) by them? The college that educated the technicians for giving out a degree to somebody incapable of doing a good job? The CEO of Boeing for not releasing better educational materials that can be followed even by careless people?

Sometimes a mistake is only the responsability of the person making it. I'm sure that there are doctors with the finest education in the finest institutions in the world that, once every 20 years, make a serious mistake that impacts the life of a patience significantly.

I'm sure just as well that there are highly experienced pilots, with the finest training available, in the best working conditions in the world, that also make mistakes every so many years.

And it's nobody else's responsability but their own. And no, it's not always that they are reckless and careless (although that's often the case). They are just human.

I'm not talking necessarily in this particular case with the Spanair accident. But I'm getting the feeling that some people in this board think that a pilot (or a techinician or an engineer working for Boeing designing airplanes) can NEVER make a mistake and that, when they do, it's the fault of some mega corporation for (pick your choice): hiring them, not training them, paying them too little, making them work too much, not investing more in safety, not getting their job reviewed 200 times by other professionals, not insisting on more laws and regulations passed, etc, etc.

I agree that, very often, that may be the case.

But we all must also agree that, sometimes, that is NOT the case and a single or a couple of individuals are the sole responsable for their actions and mistakes.

Again, not necessarily in this particular Spanair case, where a bunch of people made small mistakes that helped turn the big mistake made by the pilots into something worse than it needed to be.

(i.e. Boeing engineer's for designing a less than optimal TOWS, Spanair person in charge of SOPs for not insisting on more TOWS checks, Civil Aviation authorities in Spain and the rest of the world for approving these SOPs and these TOWS designs, CIAIAC investigators for not warning about MAP Lanzarote case on time, maintenance technicians for improperly MEL'ing a disconnected symptom instead of a fixing a problem, the person in Boeing in charge of writing the maintenance manuals for not making the connection more clear, etc, etc, etc.)