Go Back  PPRuNe Forums > Aircrew Forums > Military Aviation
Reload this Page >

Voyager Plummets (Merged)

Wikiposts
Search
Military Aviation A forum for the professionals who fly military hardware. Also for the backroom boys and girls who support the flying and maintain the equipment, and without whom nothing would ever leave the ground. All armies, navies and air forces of the world equally welcome here.

Voyager Plummets (Merged)

Thread Tools
 
Search this Thread
 
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 16:14
  #761 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: Cambridge
Posts: 667
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Undoubtedly this was a very serious incident and the officer in question was clearly negligent in his actions (as per the findings of the CM) which did cause considerable damage to, the aircraft, and many injuries on board.


However, I was extremely surprised to see things like costs introduced to the summing up by the prosecution in a bid to 'bolster their argument'.


I recall a very famous incident of a wheels up landing in a hawk which not only caused considerable damage the aircraft, but did considerable damage to many cars and a control tower......


I don't think the officer was dismissed from the service (nor went to a CM), and indeed I recall a very honest self appraisal of the accident in a well known safety publication.


I think there would have been quite a sum of money involved there too?


Presumably the main thrust of the CM was based on a judgement of whether the officer in question was being dishonest about the accident? Now he's been proven not guilty on these counts, it seems that dismissing him from the service, because 'he cost us a lot of money' is cutting ones nose off to spite ones face?


We have, after all, invested a considerable amount of time and money, in this officer over many years?

Last edited by Treble one; 3rd Mar 2017 at 16:47.
Treble one is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 16:28
  #762 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lincoln
Age: 71
Posts: 481
Received 8 Likes on 4 Posts
It would be interesting to see where people would place the pilot IAW the Just Culture and James Reason's FAIR flow chart (first one), in use within civil and military environments:

http://www.raes-hfg.com/reports/21ma...y09-baines.pdf
Exrigger is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 16:41
  #763 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Odiham
Posts: 191
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Didn't see that coming!

Any news on Sqn Ldr Nathan Giles? It was alleged by pilots that Giles threatened them during interviews for the SI (having switched the tapes off). Is he really on the Voyager OCU? Is there any investigation into his alleged behaviour?
Chinny Crewman is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 16:44
  #764 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Dreamland
Posts: 579
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Totally shocked at that outcome
Harley Quinn is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 16:50
  #765 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Sep 2014
Location: Erewhon
Posts: 474
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Sad, but it's probably justice had to be seen to be done . . .

Inevitable in my book. He was the captain, he was on his own, he undoubtedly caused the incident. What else could the CM say?
Brian W May is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 16:51
  #766 (permalink)  
I don't own this space under my name. I should have leased it while I still could
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Lincolnshire
Age: 81
Posts: 16,777
Received 5 Likes on 5 Posts
I have not finished reading the rest of the threads, pages 38/39, but there are loose articles and lost articles and unreported articles.

Earlier it was said that as ground crew he would expect a CM for a loose article. An unreported one, yes. Practically everything taken into a cockpit is a loose article until properly stowed.

I pointed out earlier the self-evident fact that a BA pilot had used a camera on the flight deck and that while the CM was in progress.
Pontius Navigator is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 17:04
  #767 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Dreamland
Posts: 579
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by Brian W May
Sad, but it's probably justice had to be seen to be done . . .

Inevitable in my book. He was the captain, he was on his own, he undoubtedly caused the incident. What else could the CM say?
I think, if you check out the FAIR model a few posts up, that is supposed to encourage honesty in return for a just outcome, cost does not feature in the decision making model. I believe he was wrong, as does he by his guilty plea, but this sentence can only lead in future to outright denial of events and the closing of ranks. I think Flight Safety just took a massive step backwards.
Harley Quinn is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 17:42
  #768 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: Lyneham
Posts: 82
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I'm a little shocked here tbh.
If you take away the charges of perjury etc, for which he was found not guilty, then you must assume the captains version of events are true.
In his case, the negligence of duty charge is a case of an honest man who made a mistake and reported what he saw to the letter.

How does this support a just culture and encourage open reporting when someone who made a mistake and reported what he saw and did is not only thrown out of the service but given a jail sentence and a criminal record.

This frankly stinks. Had there been no accusation of perjury the consequences could well have been so different. There are plenty of incidents where mistakes have written off multi million pound aircraft and resulted in nothing more than remedial training. How is this result either fair or just.
theboywide is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 17:44
  #769 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: London
Posts: 7,072
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
The article or the sentence?
Heathrow Harry is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 17:49
  #770 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lincoln
Age: 71
Posts: 481
Received 8 Likes on 4 Posts
HQ, quite correct had the just culture the RAF promotes was followed, the FAIR model should have been included as part of the SI, and I could not get him across the red line into major disciplinary box.

That said I investigated an incident quite a while back and I was amazed at the numerous attempts by the management to try various convoluted discussions to get the person over the red line to fit the 'punishment' they had pre-determined they needed to set an example to others, not what the Just Culture ethos is about really. They did it get it right in the end.

Last edited by Exrigger; 3rd Mar 2017 at 18:11. Reason: Deleted unnecessary comment
Exrigger is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 18:08
  #771 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Dreamland
Posts: 579
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by Exrigger
In a similar vein, was Investors in People that a certain RAF station was awarded, when you read the criteria, most of them the station failed on, in the humble opinion of those who worked there.
Not really sure the IiP, (Investors in Plaques) gig is appropriate for this thread, I think this is serious sh!t, not an education officer's tick in the box.
Harley Quinn is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 18:10
  #772 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: Lincoln
Age: 71
Posts: 481
Received 8 Likes on 4 Posts
Apologies HQ, was not trying to water down or intimate that it is not a serious matter.
Exrigger is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 18:14
  #773 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Anywhere
Posts: 127
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Originally Posted by beardy
If, during the recovery, the CM2 (first officer/co-pilot) had been given control and had taken it and used the instinctive disconnect button to isolate CM1's sidestick, the event would have ended then and there. Instead both pilots wrestled with the controls, a no-no in an Airbus.
I think the report says that the co-pilot did indeed do that, but as the captain believed that the autopilot had commenced the dive he was also pushing the autopilot disconnect button. As with all Airbus aircraft, once the autopilot is disconnected the same button becomes a "control override" button. So copilotpressed to overide captain, captain pressed to disconnect autopilot but actually overrode copilot, and so it went on. This stems from the captains lack of SA that the control column on his side was deflected fully forward and the autopilot disconnected.

Anyhow, this whole incident, including the SI and court martial has presented the RAF in a very bad light, and has denigrated the reputation of RAF pilots generally. I do not believe the man lied but his negligence, as he admits, caused the manoeuvre, and thus he is punished. Personally I think a bit harsh but there we go. Pour encourager les autres...
FJ2ME is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 18:25
  #774 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: UK
Posts: 2,164
Received 47 Likes on 23 Posts
So the going rate for an inadvertent action is a prison sentence and dismissal from the Service.

Brutal.

Quite a change from the days (i.e. every day before today) where you could crash a jet, or depart it from controlled flight or land one gear up or drop a live 1000lb bomb in your mates face, or accidentally strafe a UK range with HE, or bomb the wrong island, or shut down the remaining serviceable engine, or running out of fuel, or loft your external tanks or countless other mistakes with more drastic repercussions that would go without a criminal sanction.

Bye bye military aviation.
Just This Once... is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 18:30
  #775 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Here and there
Posts: 2,781
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
I am going to ask again because nobody has answered it, where were this crew trained on the Voyager?Manufacturer, in-house or third party? Having read these pages and the reports it seems to me that whoever trained them gave very poor service.
tubby linton is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 18:48
  #776 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: UK
Posts: 2,164
Received 47 Likes on 23 Posts
Were the actions as intended?

No

Knowingly violating safe operating procedures?

Yes

Were procedures available, workable, intelligible and correct?

Yes

Routine or normative or common practice to ignore procedure?

Yes

= System induced violation

Anybody else get to the same point in the FAIR flow chart?
Just This Once... is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 19:09
  #777 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: My house
Posts: 7
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I completely agree with Just This Once's post (775). The punishment is not in keeping with precedent and this will make military aircrew seriously question their position and question the future of open and honest reporting and the so-called Just Culture. In my humble opinion both are now in tatters.

I know Andy having been through an OCU and served on the same Sqn on a previous type quite some years ago; I feel for him this evening.
TaccoHell is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 20:00
  #778 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Perth
Posts: 154
Received 5 Likes on 2 Posts
People who were down the back end may feel justice has been done.

If it had ended up in a smoking hole we may never have known the root cause. Thankfully we do know what happened and nobody died, although some passengers/crew will will have to live with the consequences.

I have no sympathy for the Captain- he messed up and he has to now take his punishment. Sorry if that doesn't chime with you but he had a responsibility to his crew and passengers which he did not meet.

A very sorry tale and hopefully some lessons have been learnt and will be incorporated. We shall see..........
Speedywheels is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 20:14
  #779 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Nov 2009
Location: Dreamland
Posts: 579
Likes: 0
Received 1 Like on 1 Post
Originally Posted by Speedywheels
People who were down the back end may feel justice has been done.

If it had ended up in a smoking hole we may never have known the root cause. Thankfully we do know what happened and nobody died, although some passengers/crew will will have to live with the consequences.

I have no sympathy for the Captain- he messed up and he has to now take his punishment. Sorry if that doesn't chime with you but he had a responsibility to his crew and passengers which he did not meet.

A very sorry tale and hopefully some lessons have been learnt and will be incorporated. We shall see..........
I think you are wrong about the justice bit.
Harley Quinn is offline  
Old 3rd Mar 2017, 20:17
  #780 (permalink)  
 
Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Here and there.
Posts: 1,141
Received 55 Likes on 28 Posts
Shocked.
When the sentence for coming clean is just as harsh as one might expect for perjury then all hope is lost.

So in the future it might be better to lie and have a chance of getting away with it, rather than tell the truth and get hung anyway. Sorry, but that punishment does nothing for flight safety.
SATCOS WHIPPING BOY is offline  


Contact Us - Archive - Advertising - Cookie Policy - Privacy Statement - Terms of Service

Copyright © 2024 MH Sub I, LLC dba Internet Brands. All rights reserved. Use of this site indicates your consent to the Terms of Use.