Plane & Pilot – September 2019

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we in the civil aviation world have benefi tted from a
great deal over the years. Th e gains have not been in
improved investigation but in informing how we think
about accidents. Th e idea is to look at them as events
to help us prevent accidents instead of as events that
trigger an investigation. Th e latter approach has more
in common with a crime probe than a safety mission
and, as such, focuses on the accident from exactly the
wrong perspective.
Some wildly successful civil programs are mod-
eled after the Air Force’s harm reduction paradigm.
Th e Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA)
program, an FAA-airlines partnership, monitors fl ight
recorder data to spot risky trends. NASA’s Aviation
Safety Reporting System emphasizes data over enforce-
ment by giving pilots a self-reporting system that will
help stop problems that previously pilots hid for fear
of, as pilots say, “getting violated.”
So how to explain the widespread coverage of,
and interest in, aviation mishaps? Th e word, I know,
sounds strange at fi rst. “Mishap” seems an inten-
tional eff ort to downplay the seriousness of what we’d
normally refer to as “accidents” or “crashes,” but it’s not
that at all. Th e Air Force uses the term to underscore
that there’s nothing accidental about the incident.
Mishaps, in its view, are complex events that require a
careful analysis into what happened, how it happened,
and how it can be prevented in the future. Th e idea is
not to assign blame but to fi x the problem, with
the goal of keeping Air Force personnel alive and safe
from harm.
In this way, the Safety Center helped change the Air
Force’s culture of safety for the better.

Th at’s what is going on in our neck of the woods,

as well. We’re late to the game, but at least we’re in it

now, and the great news is that we’re making progress.

And when it comes to aviation mishaps, “progress” is

measured in lives saved.

SHOW OFF YOUR FLYING PHOTOS

If you like taking photographs of airplanes, and who

doesn’t, why not show your skills in Plane & Pilot’s

kickoff photo contest, which begins in September?

Th ere’s no entry fee for this contest, and the winner

will be eligible for great prizes. For full details, check

out our ad for the contest on page 43.

Th e theme for this fi rst contest is Yo u r F l y i n g Worl d,

and if you’re thinking that’s a pretty broad category,

you’re right. We want to encourage as many of our

readers as possible to enter this fi rst contest. If it’s

fl ying related and you care about it, then we’d love for

you to give it your best shot.

Serving as judges for the contest will be myself

along with a couple of famed aviation photographers.

One is Steve Zimmermann, whose incredible work we

shared with you earlier this year ( July 2019) in our “Air-

to-Ground II” feature story. Our second guest judge

is none other than Jim Koepnick, the famed aviation

photographer whose brilliant work you’ve seen in

aviation magazines far and wide. It’s one of Jim’s shots

that graces the cover of this month’s issue. Between the

three of us, we’ve got nearly 100 years of professional

aviation photography experience and many hundreds

of magazine covers to our credit.

Again, for all the details, check out the offi cial rules

on page 43 or visit planeandpilotmag.com. PP

LEFT: An illustration for our Lessons Learned About

Flying (and about life) monthly feature, which takes a

fi rst-person look at a close call and the lessons learned

from it.

BELOW: Each month in our After The Accident column,

our accident analyst goes beyond the NTSB fi nal report

for an in-depth look at what caused an accident, some

of them well known, such as the crash of composer

James Horner in a Tucano trainer, like the one shown

here, and some of them less well known but fascinating

for reasons that only pilots understand.

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