Everyday the holes in the cheese will line up. If the last one stays closed we'll rarely here about it.How many are acceptable? Let's say there are 6 holes in total before an accident. Inevitably the last slice is a human, be it an engineer, ATC or pilot. It is very likely that the penultimate one is human also; we work in a chain, as a team. Is it acceptable to be blasé, casual in the early phases and rely upon the alert human or a piece of technology at the end to close the holes? Of course not, but that is what often happens. In the present age, due to cost cutting, the level of experience of those humans in the last 2 slices has been diminished considerably. It is also true that many human functions in the slices earlier on in the chain of events have reduced experience in their operation. If there is an over reliance on the experience of those in the last 2 slices it is beholden on those responsible to make sure those individuals are sharp and upto the task. An old stager with many years at the helm of whatever function can be below par and still notice the errors and close the hole. Take away the years of 'gut feelings' and then make those same people below par and the last 2 holes will line up one day soon.
Aviation has always been about prevention and proaction, not reaction. That is the philosophy of the NTSB. For solely commercial greed that philosophy is being rejected every day by the supposed police forcers of safety, i.e. the various and collective XAA's. Jo-public can take the odd bus crash and train crash, perhaps even a plane crash. Now put a senior politician in the crash and watch the headless chickens run around trying to fix it. How could this have happened? We must make sure it'll never happen again, etc. etc. Who's to blame? And then the usual will be trotted out: it was the organisation, the system, an unforeseen chain of events: never was it the fault of an individual. The fact that the corps of aviation personnel had warned of the failings in the system is poo-poo'd. Then the hero will arise out one of those original groups to stress that it will never happen again and a new system is being designed. The warning concerns of those in the last 2 slices will never be aired; too embarrassing. You hear this scenario many times on Panorama, Air Crash investigation, and recently some accidents on Air Crash Confidential. Yet these do not seem to have any effect on policy.
A few years ago there was a campaign on prune to contact your MP or the name of an interested MP whose name I forget. A newspaper journalist came on asking for help with research. The support written about on prune was enthusiastic, but where did it lead and what did it achieve? It doesn't seem very much. We have MOL charging up the steps in Brussels to argue his case as an owner an airline. He's demanding less regulation so he can crack his whip more, strengthen his feudal kingdom and squeeze more from his ever grateful crumb gathering peasants. Where is ECA in response?
Back to greed. I'm glad I'm out of it.
Last edited by RAT 5; 1st Nov 2012 at 10:35.