Give us a clue to your qualifications then? I witnessed Shoreham first hand. Let the AAIB do their stuff in their own time. Please.
Thanks for that insightful value add. In the meantime we didn't have to wait very long for some news to come along that illustrates the point I was making...
Was helicopter crash pilot 'under pressure' to complete flight? - Get Surrey
The day before the tragedy Mr Barnes had flown for the East Midlands air ambulance, the inquest heard.
In a handover phone call to fellow air ambulance pilot Shaun Tinkler-Rose, he said he was under "extreme pressure" to carry out a job picking up a private client, Richard Caring, from Elstree in Hertfordshire to take him to a shooting party in Yorkshire.
Mr Tinkler-Rose told the inquest: "Probably 80% of the conversation was that he wasn't going to fly - 20% of the conversation regarding the weather was that, in his exact words, he may 'give it a go' and go up to Elstree and make some noise."
"The overall gist I got from the conversation was that he didn't really want to fly.
"When we finished the conversation I was pretty much under the impression that he wasn't going to fly."
Mr Tinkler-Rose added Mr Barnes had told him he was tired of the pressures of the private helicopter industry and wanted to move into the environment of private jets.
"He did actually say that he was under pressure on the day to fly," Mr Tinkler-Rose said.
"He wasn't showing outward signs of worry, but he was a little bit cheesed off."
But Mr Barnes was "extremely experienced" in charter operations, he added, saying he was known as "the guru" to "everybody in the industry" and that he was extremely good with clients and always tried to fulfil his obligations to them.
Mr Barnes' vast experience allowed him to safely take risks that less experienced pilots would not, Mr Tinkler-Rose said.
After discussing the weather that morning, Mr Tinkler-Rose told the inquest he had advised Mr Barnes to "bin" the flight.
The inquest was told that in the weeks prior to the accident, Mr Caring had argued with another pilot from RotorMotion, either over a diverted flight or his perceived general attitude.
It was then decided that only Mr Barnes or owner and chief pilot Philip Amadeus would fly him in future.
You'll have to pick your way through the formatting but that is an interesting conversation is it not? And one that I'm sure was not reflected in the AAIB report of the same. Odd because it does seem relevant?
Then consider that this accident happened in Jan 2013 and then in March 2014 G-LBAL crashed. Its report contained this gem:-
Decision making
In its report of the accident involving a commercially operated complex helicopter
(7)the AAIB noted that:
‘...pilots will often be subject to pressures – real or perceived – to complete a
task. These pressures might lead pilots to continue with flights in circumstances
where otherwise they would not...’
Discussion with industry participants during the investigation of the accident involving
G-LBAL indicates that increased regulation is not a complete solution if these pressures cause pilots to operate a flight in violation of the regulations, and that mitigating the pressures themselves is necessary to improve safety.
Footnote7
Report on the accident to Agusta A109E, G-CRST, near Vauxhall Bridge, Central London on 16 January2013.
Sadly the C-CRST report wasn't published until September 2014...
Of course until then we had the usual flaming of anyone who dared to speculate on the why's and wherefores.