I wasn't sure whether to post this as I thought this thread would close.

Last Sunday I was on final in the Cub and noticed a tractor ploughing on the field adjacent to the runway threshold, I observed for a little and reckoned I would probably clear him as he would have passed across my path,approaching closer I realised I might hit him so applied power ,climbed a little and landed further down the strip.
On my landing run I called another aircraft on downwind to warn him of the situation.
Last year I had a similar happening and chose to go around.

The point of this post is that-
1-Flying in the farmland areas of E. Anglia we are often using strips/runways adjacent to farming operations.
2-I did not have an accident because I could see the working farm machinery on approach.

If I had been flying an aircraft with poor forward visibilty then the outcome could ave been very different.
Accidents happen ,despite our best intentions and they are not always automatically caused by negligence on the pilots behalf.

The report said it was a tragic accident without blame to either pilot

Lister

No it didn't. It said:

There is no reference to "tragic accident" and the AAIB, rightly, never allocate blame.

cowsgettingbigger
"and the AAIB, rightly, never allocate blame."


Not sure that is true. A microlight crash in Kent some years ago had remarks by an AAIB Inspector that should not have been included in the report.

Caused a lot of problems, cost a lot of money.

.... and they now make doubly sure they no longer apportion blame.

There was a lot of uninformed discussion about this before the report came out. Now we have a lot of new information.

Bose-x - no one wants a witch-hunt. Yes, it could of happened to anyone and there is no reason to point fingers.

Yet the report does mention a number of contributing factors which as you say happened to coincide - but isn't that the way with most accidents?

Bottom line (according to the report - and I paraphrase) the pilots were not able to see the approach path at all times and the flight should have been flown in a way that they could.

We can move on - yes - but why can't we take this statement seriously?

Molesworth, I bow to your superior knowledge and experience. Please don't ever make a mistake that will allow others to dance on your grave.

Well, I have thought long and hard about this and I am closing it.

Please PM me or email if you want to take this up further.

Seething air accident
 

There was a very sensitve and factual report on BBC Look East this evening regarding the tragic accident at Seething Airfield last year ,involving an aircraft in collision with an agricultural spraying machine.
Lister

Here is the clip Lister was talking about

BBC NEWS | UK | England | Norfolk | Inquest opens into crash deaths

The inquest concluded last week with a finding of accidental death. Evidence was given by the highly experienced photographer and by the airfield management that the pilots briefed for three circuits, the airfield had a Rule 5 exemption, Ian Davis was permitted to use this exemption once per month, he had not used it in October 2008 and there was no low flying beat up of the airfield. The crash happened off the third circuit. Everything to do with this flight was legal and the sortie was planned with the total professionalism to be expected of two hugely experienced and respected pilots.

I knew Steve, hence my interest in the record being put straight. The AAIB report contains some serious omissions which made it look as though the pilots wilfully disregarded the local rules of the airfield. This is not so and this lack of balance is now being taken up with the AAIB.

I hope the usual suspects don't jump back onto this thread and use it as a hook on which to hang the various issues they obviously had with anything remotely connected with the airfield.

I attended the inquest and it is just as Justiciar said!

The coroner when advising the jury during the summing up said "these two men died in a tragic accident whilst doing something that they clearly loved".

Stik

Nice to have a good conclusion to this thread!