Pilot legal prosecution in China
 

Just curious for those who have a lot more experience in the region than I do. In Japan there have been numerous well-known occasions where the captain of an airliner that had a turbulence related passenger injury (or worse) was prosecuted or put in jail. Are there similar policies and case history in China? Will a loss of separation, passenger injury, or runway overrun get the pilot of a foreign flagged international airliner thrown in a prison camp? Discuss.

Chinese do not have the sofistication of Japanese niether western nations.
They are good copy cats though, but you will be lucky, very lucky if you find a law firm who can speak english beyond Level 2.:eek:

Ahh, you've just got to love irony :rolleyes:

@Pontius: :E:D:ok:

In Japan if you are involved in an accident it is customary for you to be arrested, but you really are not in jail. It is more of a house arrest than anything. A Garuda was arrested after running off the runway in Fukuoka when he rejected after passing V1. The cockpit crew was arrested but never saw the light of jail. He was eventually allowed to return to Jakarta and only returned for the result of the investigation after which he was cleared. Evidently his explanation for rejecting after V1 satisfied the JCAB.

It is quite common in many countries especially in Asia if you are a pilot and found guilty of blatant pilot error then you can be prosecuted. Remember the Korean Airlines 777 Captains who initially did not want to return to Korea as they were afraid they would be punished and jailed? The Canadians also have several examples of committing extreme pilot error and being prosecuted. The practice is quite common in Asian countries as it is part of the "punishment culture" and Asian face saving gesture to blame someone. I can also think of at least one example where a US pilot was jailed for his actions with his personal DC-3 aircraft. You have to research the facts of this Chinese case and most will conclude the sentence was justified. The pilot had fake licenses and had lied about his training and flight hours in the military in order to receive a commercial pilot license. He had very few hours and mostly in helicopters yet claimed he had over 500 hours of fixed wing time. The pilots continued a non-precision approach below minimums until they collided with the ground 650 meters short of the runway in dense fog. The Captain admitted they were trying to land at all costs as they had a VIP passenger onboard. The Chinese punished the entire airline as it now no longer exists and the CEO and VP were immediately dismissed. Pilot unions and labor contracts can help avoid prosecution and jail time but in the end blatant pilot error can land the pilot in jail in Asian countries. This could apply equally well to any pilot from ANY country while flying in China whether you are from a foreign country or not if the action is completed while in China.

The entire fleet of E-jets were parked on a ramp for quite a while after the accident. I can't remember which airport but it was a secondary airport.

Chinese military pilots fly very little, and then usually only touch and goes. The airlines encourage them to boost their flight time through the "Parker Technique" and the government doesn't care as these pilots were extremely well connected in the first place. That is how they got in the military in the first place.

It is what it is. The Chinese cheat on everything. It is only a surprise when they do something legit.

That flight was Henan Airlines flight 8387 which had regular passengers and high ranking staff from China's Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security aboard. Henan's fleet was grounded and the Embraers sat for years on the ramp at Zhengzhou, but were taken away sometime between late 2013 and mid 2014.

Do any pilots in China remember the special non-ILS checkrides mandated for all by the CAAC after this crash? One dumbass busts minimums and crashes, so all airline pilots must be checked. They should have instead done a psycholigical screening for dangerous attitudes such as the captain's, but would have grounded 3/4 of the pilots in the PRC.

"Complete the mission: get the VIP to his destination, no matter what."

There's another thing relating to how China handles aviation accidents. They will do a check of all data available to evaluate the crew's performance - a retroactive line check - and factor that into the equation of blame. There is always blame, because the airplane departed, and the punishment will be divided according to who who did their job best and who didn't.

Do you see what they do to company executives when scandals erupt over harmful business practices? They execute. They execute more people, for more offenses, than the rest of the world combined, so watch yer butts when you fly in China.