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Old 15th Feb 2017, 15:11
  #50 (permalink)  
fdr
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: 3rd Rock, #29B
Posts: 2,956
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Human Factors

My view on Harrison Ford is stated previously but I reiterate, he is an inspiration to the aviation community. That is similar to another great who recently passed, R.A. Hoover. "Bob" was a superlative pilot, and inspired me when I was 15 years old, when I did some aeros with him in the puke green T-28B. (It was later in the same day I went flying in A P-51D of a lesser known aviator of great talent, Bob Love). How much was I inspired? I own a T-28B and still enjoy presenting that aircraft to the younger generation, and to the guys who flew it in service, most of who have never got old in heart. Bob Hoover bellied in an aircraft after it was filled with Jet A, while the plane unfortunately had pistons. Blaming people for being human is to discredit the fact that being human is why we have achieved the amazing art of flight.

It will be interesting to see what the FAA's local FSDO's response is, however there has been a sea change in the FAA that has gone unnoticed in recent times. The ASI task has emphasis on compliance still but without the mandatory punitive enforcement policy that poisoned what is arguably one of the premier regulatory authorities on the planet. The original aim of the FAA in the Act was to promote aviation, and that sadly remains defunct, but at least the FAA is getting back to what they do best rather than being the local arm of law enforcement. They will still take punitive action when circumstances warrant such, and so they should, but being human in this day of understanding of human behaviour and risk mitigation should not invoke penalties without Mens Rea.

Human error events highlight opportunities to improve system safety. Punitive action hides the truth by suppressing open reporting. Harrison Ford will be angry with himself, he has that level of personal awareness and integrity; wish there were more people with those ethics around.
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