With the advent of FLARM and with it's datarecorder capability, all flights will be recorded in the future. I am sure there is software that could be developed where in a program like SeeYou, it will tell the supervising (L2) instructor that the pilot has dropped below say 800' above ground level and has not landed. This would be flagged and the pilot asked to please explain.
This sounds like a big brother suggestion but may save lives and prevent accidents. PeterS ----- Original Message ----- From: J&J Thompson To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2005 3:17 PM Subject: [Aus-soaring] accident investigation I warily tread into the incident investigation debate. Firstly, with regard to the fatality at Dalby, the report on our investigation is available on our website under the 'safety centre' area. The password protection on it was not supposed to be on it, and has now been removed so we are happy for people to read it. We did a very thorough investigation, and worked with the police, who, in reality didn't have a clue on where to start. They were only intested in ruling out foul play, suicide and illegal activities. We provided our investigation to the police, who used it to submit to the coroner. We have since been informed in the last few weeks that the coroner will not investigate the accident, based on the throrough investigation we provided. Our investigation as well as the police investigation is available under freedom of information legislation. By investigating the accident within days of the accident, we were able to get all the information promptly while information was fresh. I doubt we could do a thorough investigation now, some 6 months after the accident. Based on our discussions with the police, I hate to think what their unknowledgable investigation would have looked like. Words like "fell out of the sky from 5000ft" was the tone of it. In our club, we are lucky that we have some skills, training and experience in accident investigation which enabled us to have confidence in the investigation and the reporting. Not conducting an investigation, and hiding behind a police and coroner's enquiry, will not make you immune to a legal prosection, because if a party is determined to sue, they will. Secondly, and more generally, in my work life I have occasion to train/educate on safety legislation and managing safety. The point about the legal ramifications are firstly, you should be vigilant about having good and working operation and airworthiness systems and secondly, if you do have a serious accident, you should have your "house in order" so the opportunities for legal avenues by other parties are minimised. If you can demonstrate good systems and consistent good management of safety, it is less likely you will be successfully prosectued. If Gliding continues to ignore proper investigation because of being afraid of prosecution, this is folly in the long term. Invesigations and the dissemination of the lessons will help us all to avoid future accidents. For GFA representatives we need to provide them with tools and training in investigation techniques. We need to include basics of incident causation, reporting and investigation in our Instructor training. If it is a concern of investigators being prosecuted, we need to investigate some form of liablity insurance for them. These are things for the GFA Ops panel to take on if they would listen. As an aside, I have had opportunity to see a number of GPS traces from outlanding incidents and accidents, and some random traces from "non" incidents from inexperienced cross country pilots (from various clubs), and they show a remarkable similarity on the lack of decision or discipline to break off, which was a contributing factor in the fatality at Dalby. If we had consistent reporting and investigation this is the sort of information that should feed back into our training systems and to all the club instructors. Jenny Thompson _______________________________________________ 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
