There seems to general agreement to the following:
1) Timely Publication of a reasonably substantial report on each
gliding accident or incident is a help to our continuing safety.
2) Publication of accident reports written by the GFA gives legal
problems to the GFA.
Isn't there another way of going about this.
Since most of don't have many accidents or incidents, being given the
additional task that as well as our current accident/incident reporting
requirements, we have a new requirement to write a 'For Publication'
report within two weeks of each accident/incident, this extra task is
not exactly onerous.
A standard 'For Publication' report format should be created with a few
minimums (Place, time, aircraft(s), passengers, experience of pilots
etc) Outside the minimums, it is now up to each pilot involved how much
they wish to analyze or discuss the incident. If the pilot feels that
further information could cause them legal problems then they can stick
to the minimum.
My own expectation is, that once we get the pilot started in creating
these reports, most pilots will give very full accounts rather than the
minimum.
I believe that it should be placed into the GFA Standard Operating
procedures so that in agreeing to fly as a member of the GFA we are all
agreeing to this procedure.
Yes, if the accident is fatal for all pilots involved then this
procedure won't give us a publishable report. But if we get to publish
reports on the vast majority of the accidents and incidents in a timely
fashion then it would be a lot better than what we have now.
Since each club should have accidents and incidents reasonably rarely,
we could add to the responsibilities of each instructors panel for it to
be their responsibility to ensure that these reports are done. And
since fatals should be extremely rare, maybe in this case the 'For
Publication' report is done by the instructors panel. Again, with the
option that if they feel that there is the possibility of some legal
action then they can simply stick to the minimums.
This could be enlarged so that instructors will often request these 'For
Publication' reports for minor incidents that aren't considered serious
enough to be otherwise reported. A good learning exercise for the
student and an additional way for the instructors to ensure that
appropriate lessons from each incident has been learnt. I'm sure we can
all learn from publication of many of these minor incidents that didn't
end up involving injury of damage.
There may be further things that need to be addressed in this
procedure. e.g. what happens when the clubs instructors panel
disagrees with the pilots analysis etc. I think that the procedure
should be such that it is printed as created by the pilot without
outside comment so that pilots aren't intimidated in their writing of
these reports.
Just some hopefully constructive thoughts on this matter
Ken Dawber
Geoff Kidd wrote:
As per numerous recent posts on this Forum, I haven't heard anyone
demanding that the original "Crash Report" be published. Most
understand the issues that you mentioned.
But there is a considerable demand in this Forum, and elsewhere, for
*SOMETHING* (of substance) to be reported to the members on the
accidents (and incidents) of our fellow members ........ and not just
the fatals.
I don't think anyone wants sensational or personal details from these
occurrences ......... but I do think that many of the Members want
information on, and would benefit by learning from, the accidents and
incidents that have happened to our fellow members.
----- Original Message -----
*From:* [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Publishing crash reports *IS* too much to ask. Unlike the ATSB,
the GFA has not legal sheild against being sued for damages or
defamation for what is in the report. The only way it can reasoably
happen is a change in the law, or for the ATSB to publish it.
--
Paul Repacholi 1 Crescent Rd.,
+61 (08) 9257-1001 Kalamunda.
West Australia 6076
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