Originally Posted by FREDA
An engineering oversight left the cowls unsecured and we're still trying to blame this on pilot error?
Not just
trying to blame this on pilot error, FREDA. The pilot error
was in failing to spot the unlatched covers before committing aviation ! No pilot doubts that today, do they ?
A flight crews skills brought the bloody thing back in one piece and the cabin crews skills got everyone out of a burning aeroplane alive.
Yep but is the flight crew mentally still in one piece? They are surely deeply embarrassed even if it is one of the
there but for the grace go I type unfortunate incidents, and of course the engineers will also be embarrassed for having handed over a loaded gun - but they didn't pull the trigger - pilots did that!
Take it on the chin, learn from it, and stop blaming the usual scapegoats.
Yes, pilots should do that and I am sure most would take it on the chin. To be clear, just like David Learmount when he said Yes to BBC's Chris Ekin, Yes I ultimately blame the pilot responsible for the walk round check on this one. Since 1903 he or she has been ultimately responsible for the team effort that puts each piece of tin safely into the sky as well as gets it down again safely but especially when something that should be picked up by the Mark I eyeball during the customary walk round is missed. So in analysing what went wrong here it would be preferable, would it not, if ideas of simple prevention next time rather than skilled cure again in future were the ones that were applauded?
Let's not forget too quickly that an incomplete undisciplined (unscripted/unprompted?) walk round inspection, depending on how diligently it is done of course, may be tantamount to Russian Roulette. Now unless we put money on it, and beancounters do of course, the rest of us have never applauded the Christopher Walkens of this world for surviving Russian Roulette now have we?
Unlike David Learmount I do not think it is right to dilute my "Yes" vote with phrases like 'design fault' or 'engineer error' to the extent we have incorrectly spun headlines in tomorrow's newspapers. Those responsible for those other errors are in play but they are not ultimately accountable for this incident.