"Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." These were the words of George Santana, a philosopher. Its meaning does reflect the object of a so called Just Culture, the aim of which is to prevent recurrence of accidents and incidents by encouraging active and transparent reporting of safety occurrences as well as full participation in safety investigation instead of punishing those involved.
The aviation community has increasingly been concerned over a trend in criminal prosecutions of aviation professionals. That reports and material emerging in accident investigations seem to find their way into court rooms. Could this therefore have a detrimental effect on the true purpose and aim of accident reporting and investigation.
The dilemma is therefore is how to strike the right balance between the needs of improving safety in aviation and the recognition of the justice system`s legitimacy to investigate and prosecute any suspected criminal acts that may have been involved.
At the present time there is no quick fix to this long standing dilemma as to how to go about finding a resolution to the conflict between such two powerful and capricious masters, aviation safety and administration of justice.
No doubt the two eminent High Court judges who heard the Sussex Police application last week are currently wrestling over precisely this point.
I await their ruling with great anticipation. After all it will be down to such judges that this dilemma will eventually be resolved.