Risk Management....CRM....commonsense all play a role in how we manage our Cockpit duties....and when Single Pilot we have to admit that our workload at the best of times is significant.
Part of CRM and just plain commonsense is that we allocate our time to absolutely neccessary actions and even then put a priority on each of them.
Thus....as Texting is an issue here....where would you rank that task in the order of priorities given the situation under discussion?
We do not know the workload the Pilot was under....if the Auto Pilot was doing the driving....or anything else that would play a factor in that ranking.
I am not passing judgement on Barnes....but sincerely feel the questions need asking as if such a tragedy can happen to him.....it can happen to any of us.
As any tragedy like this....we must learn from what happened and see if we can find a way to ensure it does not happen again for the same reasons....whatever they may turn out to be.
One Man's Opinion....Texting is a NO NO. Using a Cell Phone is a NO NO. I took a stand on that once before. I said with no uncertain terms...when I was a Pilot....I was a Pilot....and running a business from the seat of helicopter in flight just plain was not going to happen.
The difference between a Cell Phone conversation and a radio exchange is the Radio Exchange is short, brief, and concise and all about an essential bit of business...that being flying the machine and coordinating that with ATC.
Cell Phone conversations are a distraction...can be extended (as compared to talking with ATC), and generally can wait until after the aircraft is shut down.
We have to make our own decisions about that as long the activity is not illegal. Just as in every part of this flight....just because something is "legal" does not make it something that should be done or can be done without additional risk.
That the holes in the Swiss Cheese lined up on this one....cannot be denied.
Let's find out what the holes were....and plug them however we can.
Last edited by SASless; 23rd Jan 2013 at 14:10.