Originally Posted by Gertrude the Wombat
Should it not occur to a pilot that if someone needs to get out and the engine can't be shut down yet (not matter how falsely that belief is held) the correct procedure is to sit there and wait until the engine can be shut down?
Are there really any pilots whose passenger briefing does not include fairly explicit briefings as to why the passenger should not go anywhere near a propellor?
I didn't really want to 'read between the lines' of the AAIB bulletin report, but I can't help thinking that both the pilot and the passenger were in a rush, and the differing stories indicate a bit of a 'blame game'.
Would it be a sensible assumption that the pilot and the passenger were in a rush? Rather than shut the engine down, impatience and bad judgement got the better of the pilot and she did what she thought was sensible and throttled back to idle. Could the excitement and sense of haste cause the passenger to forget what she was told about how to safely exit the aeroplane and think the fastest way down was to head forward off the leading edge?
It seems too much like common sense to stay away from the propeller; common sense indeed for anyone familiar with SEP aircraft. Yet both the pilot and the passenger's action were in their opinion sensible at the time.