This has become an impressive discussion thread and one I would hope the two men who died in the accident would approve of.
I’m sure anyone here would endorse Flying Lawyer’s comment about preferring to die of old age. The same applies to anything that would improve safety for for us or others in situations where risk is involved. Short, perhaps, of the total nanny state where we’re all confined to the sofa. Usually little things, the importance of which seems to increase as one advances in age. On a boat or an old aircraft it might be a doubler or an extra rivet – or one’s sensitivity to the importance of energy, as several have already mentioned. Or, for example, as in the case of the Shorts ditching at Edinburgh, a little thing like loosening the overhead escape hatch fastenings prior to hitting the water. There just can’t be enough of that and I am tempted to think that part of the measure of professionalism in anything is the sheer pleasure one takes in actually being able to remember all those little things.
Perhaps I have a problem defining respect for the deceased. But if you put a clamp on speculation now, while there are people around who actually saw what happened, aren’t you stifling the very essence of learning from accidents? I would hope that most of us, whatever we do, would not expect to be excused from judgement by our peers because we had died while doing something risky. If anything, most of us would probably expect a warmer than normal roasting; that in itself is part of the risk. Our actions might, or might not, be vindicated in the subsequent accident report. But most accident reports take months; should a community of peers just shut the issue out of its minds for the interim, as if the accident had never happened? I think that’s the absolute opposite of what should happen.
No matter what one does to minimise it, risk remains pretty much a constant. In boats, if I’m pitchpoled and look a fool, there will loads of laughs at my expense and a dozen different opinions as to how I could/should have avoided it. I will have deserved it and – if I’m not taking myself too seriously on the day – I’ll be laughing at myself just as heartily. If I happen to thump my head on the mast and drown in the process, the laughter will be muted but the opionions will still be around – probably even more vehemently.
If you pogo-stick a Stearman three quarters of the way down the runway on your third landing in type but still manage to get back to the apron intact, you’ll be the butt of all jokes for half an hour and will hear as many different opinions on landing techniques as there are people in the club bar. And If you flip it and bump your head? About the same proportion of mourning but the opinions and discussion are still there.
I really don’t think it’s disrespectful of the dead to speculate. On the contrary, it is trying to learn from their mishaps, but without the pleasure of having them around to share the experience. It’s certainly not a question of laying blame.