Diversification
The interaction between the Aviation industry, the Regulators and the public is a constantly morphing 'being' relative to "minor" actions. There is a tacit (and written) 'book' that gives all of us direction, and motive in the interest of Safety.
New products, business models, cultural fad/fashion, etc. must have a place at the table, Aviation is a business, in every respect. In the broad view, 'fear' of flying has been replaced (too often) with nonchalance. This is good, and bad. When Propellors are slung off an engine, or unknown 'whirl mode' physics kills people, every person takes alarming note. When periodic inspections of a/c are deferred (by rule), or slyly 'pencil whipped' into compliance by greed, the conflict is less publicly apparent. Too many maintenance bases have people who view regulations as "obstacles" rather than necessary guidelines.
Relative to 121.5 and its impact on the investigation, so many things were going wrong with 447, that in all honesty, some perspective is needed to understand the lack of an emergency call. It boils down to pilot incapacitation, a too heavy work load, or duff radios/antenna. Everything about overwater twinops has been addressed, so we can comfort ourselves in the knowledge that it is highly unlikely some new and mysterious enemy in the sky is at work. The end result of the investigative exercise will very likely be related to mechanical, human, or Natural causes, and these causes very well known to the professionals having a look.
No pilot finding himself in the situation these crew did would likely consider extrapolating a final impact zone to pass along to his 'collectors'. The need of a modified automatic broadcast may be obvious, but that is subject to new mandates, an adversarial and inescapable exercise known as "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking".
thx for your contributions, imo this is a very important venue for advised give and take.
rgds,
bear
Last edited by bearfoil; 2nd Nov 2010 at 16:19.
Reason: miscreant comma deletion