Hello Kevin, Very wise.
If no information is provided by reliable sources, it will be gathered from unreliable sources. Journalists make their living from news, and the most important element of delivering news is to get it in before the deadline. It is more realistic to expect the Snowy River to flow uphill than to expect a journalist to do painstaking research so that his or her story is wholly accurate but three weeks late. No professional journalists make stories up, but all journalists have to respect deadlines and they will therefore file a story based on what appears to be the best available information at the time. In all facets of aviation we need to be able to disseminate news promptly and accurately following an accident. Few parts of aviation have the opportunity to do so that gliding does, because of the near-universal affiliation of the gliding fraternity with GFA. The rest of general aviation has a huge obstacle in that it takes a lot of research to find out whether those involved in an accident were affiliated with an aviation organisation. Unfortunately there is another problem. There is deep-seated resistance to issuing reliable information about accidents - you only have to look at how Wayne Carter's head was bitten off a month or two ago when he suggested in this forum it would be wise to do so. Boyd Munro AIR SAFETY AUSTRALIA ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kevs Drafting" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia." <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2005 8:01 PM Subject: [Aus-soaring] Accident news reports An official accident report should be released into the gliding community. The recent accident at Gympie has highlighted the inaccuracies and lack of knowledge of news reports. Anyone relying on them would easily get the wrong story. * The courier mail report, which was mentioned in this list, reported the pilot missed the airport and nosedived from 400 feet. * The Sunshine daily reported the glider hitting the ground nose first before going through a fence. * A local radio station reported the glider banked sharply prior to landing and the wing tip struck the ground. * Local TV interviewed the rescue helicopter pilot who explained the crash almost as an outlanding gone wrong. He described the glider as being made completely of wood and made it sound quite flimsy "it was extreamly lucky anyone survived". * The news presenter ended the story assuring all that wind was not a factor in the accident. (So obviously it didn't stop). As well as getting the correct story to the gliding community, we need to get the correct facts to the wider community. Otherwise the general public will go on for another hundred years believing gliders are light flimsy aircraft flying at the mercy of the wind. Gliding needs to be constantly in the news / media for the public to be educated in gliding activities. Not necessarily come and have a go type advertising but general news that slowly educates then makes people inquisitive. Kevin Roden _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
