PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - AAIB investigation to Hawker Hunter T7 G-BXFI 22 August 2015
Old 4th Mar 2017, 00:41
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Sillert,V.I.
 
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The reasons for this accident and the reasons why it had such tragic consequences are not the same thing. Anyone still trying to blame one person for what happened is missing the whole point of that 400+ page report.

To those whose loved ones died that day and are trying to find some closure I would say this:

The accident happened because the pilot made a mistake. The final mistake which ultimately sealed their fate was made in a split second, under pressure and whilst flying upside down; hardly an ideal situation for decision making. To err is human; pilots are human and it is inevitable that they will sometimes make mistakes.

The reason why so many lost their lives was because a large number of people across a range of organisations failed to adequately assess and mitigate against the entirely foreseeable risk that a pilot might make a mistake. If those people had properly discharged their responsibilities, it is very likely that noone apart from the pilot would have been injured or killed. Unlike the pilot, their mistakes were made from the comfort of a safe seat on the ground, with many months or even years in which to find the right answers.

Continuing to hound the unfortunate pilot will achieve nothing beyond compromising future accident investigations. He may have made a poor split-second decision, but IMO not a negligent one; he will doubtless live with the consequences of that decision for the rest of his life and whatever his shortcomings may have been, I'd say he has already paid a fair price for his poor decision.

To those who think a prosecution of the pilot may serve as a warning to others I will say only this; I can conceive of no penalty which would act as a greater deterrent to a future airshow display pilot than the obvious consequences of flying a fast jet into the ground.
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