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Old 14th Sep 2015, 10:33
  #769 (permalink)  
idle bystander
 
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Penryn, Cornwall
Age: 79
Posts: 84
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Elephant warning

Well, someone, despite CM's attempt to stifle it, has started discussing the elephant in the room ...
Of course, if it is shown to be a technical issue, or pilot error during the manoeuvre, then there would be no prosecution.
Why ever not? Forgetting the issues about entry level etc, which are probably irrelevant (sorry!), are there no judicial consequences arising from the planning, approval or conduct of a manoeuvre in which a fast jet bottoms out, in a high energy state, 200ft above a busy main road, where a small mistake or technical issue could have the sort of consequences we saw at Shoreham?

People have been making comparisons here with the risks involved in just being on the roads, with the implication that the deaths of 11 bystanders should somehow be accepted, and everyone just carry on as normal. Well, if I make an error driving, take a corner faster than icy conditions allow, and wipe out a bus queue, I am pretty sure I can expect to be prosecuted, and rightly so. Should not the same principle apply to any activity which puts the general public at risk?
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