Originally Posted by
Sunfish
Jonkster, in what jurisdiction, other than Australia, can you be prosecuted for the "crime" of not following "advice" or "recommendations"????
that is a fair point Sunfish. Again I don't know what of the other issues are just rumour or speculation but if that was all he actually did that was questionable then I would agree with you he shouldn't be pursued and prosecuted.
Similarly, if he simply didn't have navigation privileges (but did have training) and did everything else by the book (ie flew a recommended route, planned carefully, carried appropriate gear and ensured the aircraft was in suitable condition) I probably would think - the bloke maybe should be counseled about not having the appropriate privileges and warned and required to get the endorsement rather than prosecuted.
If however many of the rumoured issues are true (and again - which issues are rumour and beat up? Hard to know other than what I can find in media articles), it points to someone who was knowingly reckless as well as breaching regulations as well as bringing another person unwittingly into the situation and who got caught when the Swiss Cheese all lined up. In that case - I would say - how can CASA turn a blind eye? A journalist could have a field day if the safety regulator just ignored it when the incident had become well known in the media.
I am a little torn here. Yes I agree if you make a couple of dud decisions, much better to be counseled and the incident be used to educate others about what can go wrong however there comes a point when someone is not just making some poor decisions, they are knowingly pushing their luck and that does concern me because it doesn't just impact him (or his poor passenger).
I would hope (and think it is a well founded hope) that most recreational/LSA pilots do follow the rules and do try to uphold high standards of airmanship but when someone does stupid and reckless stuff and ends up in the drink in a high profile way and then other things come to light about their lack of proper airmanship, of course the media will love it. It is juicy and salacious and feeds our love of pointing out stupidity to each other.
The problem then is everyone flying such aircraft gets painted with the same brush as the cowboy. No matter how many similar aircraft and pilots have safely done the trip using common sense and good practices.
When the public get fed salacious details about reckless behaviour (whether the person is prosecuted or not) lots of others get maligned as well and it makes it likely government will act when there are high profile incidents of reckless behaviour by cowboys.
If most of what was said about his actions are true (and *again I don't know how much is accurate hence why I asked*), then thank that bloke for nothing - he would have, through his poor airmanship, dragged the reputation of recreational aviation/LSA down (and potentially making it easier for government policy to become more restrictive rather than less
)
All that said - what do we know about what happened and what he did? All of this for me would be moot if it was just a failure to get an endorsement signed off, which may well be the case, in which case I would line up with you and say that is a total waste of taxpayers money and heavy handed.
What do we actually know?
(And where there have been incidents and operators that CASA doesn't pursue that were worse cases of breaches, I agree that is wrong too)