Some very valid points WW. Wherever you have an AOC postholder who is also an owner or person with a major financial stake in the organisation you have the potential equivalent of a pedophile running a primary school.
Regulators need to ensure that owners/shareholders are distanced from operational decisions. Chief pilots and chief engineers must be given far more direct control over standards etc than is currently the case. This means that they should have a measure of direct budgetary control and absolute power to hire, fire and assign to duty. Although the CEO is also a postholder, it should be absolutely clear that his/her function is to provide the funds and the facilities for the technical people to properly discharge their responsibilities. A CEO in a small outfit could fly the line to keep abreast of operations, but allowing a CEO to wear the Chief Pilot hat or a Flight Standards hat in any company which operates more than one or two small aircraft is just asking for rules to be broken, short cuts to be taken.
Until this happens we will continue to see accidents caused by commercial pressures.
Last edited by Mach E Avelli; 5th January 2013 at 21:29.