Reno Air Races Accident and depressingly another one T-28

[MOD]

Thanks for the news-vid link Dan4th. It really is a miracle that the crash wasn't followed by an explosion.

That said though, 10 dead at an airshow is 10 too many.

R.I.P








ibw

[Dan4th]

This just showed up on my homepage:::::::::::::::

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45917552/ns/us_news-life/

It does sound as if this is being dealt with
in a sane fashion, though......

Danf.

[Mayfly]

Prelim report out - looks like there were some unauthorised mods carried out!

http://www.ntsb.gov/news/events/2012/reno_nv/index.html

[MOD]

Thanks Pam:
Another depressing read. There is a fine line between Safe and Unsafe practices. As we have seen with Thunder City, undue pressure, on the various agencies responsible for keeping these old airframes flying, comes from the need to earn income - which is only possible if the aircraft flies in front of a fee-paying audience. When this becomes the paramount consideration that fine line can become somewhat blurred with poor decision making taking place in the interests of expediency but to the detriment of safety.

My own view is that these guys, who preserve and fly historic aircraft, are to be applauded for their efforts up to and until they put the general public, who often fund their efforts, into a position where they are exposed to undue risk.

Once again I think we are lucky in the UK to have a CAA which takes its duties very, very seriously.

ibw

[Ducati Boy]

Your so right Pam.

There is no excuse for making illegal choices and by passing the system designed to maintain safety in aviation. It is wrong to set oneself up as an overiding authority by deferring maintenance without approval or doing modifications without proper permission from the Engineering Authority designated by the manufacturer.

Our CAA provides clear direction on what can be done and what cannot. Problems occur when individuals ignore the rules, either because they refuse to see the point of rules and believe they know better or because they pressurise themselves to achieve what cannot be safely done, because "it'll do a trip". Better to miss a display, than to display a crash.

It appears that Thunder City had not adhered to those principles, if they had the Lightning might have been grounded temporarily for corrective work, but would still be in one piece and a pilot would still be alive and flying.

The CAA deserves our support and praise for their work maintaining high standards for all our safety.

[Dan4th]

It ought to be noted that your CAA and
the US's FAA share a parallel history and
have a very long tradition of resource
sharing and cooperation....

Between the two of them, they have set
the bar internationally for intelligent
regulation and accident investigation
and re-construction...

Their rules and regs aren't totally identical,
but they have all arisen from that long-term
relationship going back to before "The War".....

And neither one of them has ever been "in
the pocket" of the airline industry, either!



Danf.