2020-05-01 Plane & Pilot

6 MAY 2020 ÇPlane&Pilot

GOING DIRECT

By Isabel Goyer

T

here’s an old ethos in flying that pilots should

never speculate on the cause of aviation accidents,

especially when a high-profile crash hits the news.

Some folks are vocal and passionate in sharing their

feelings about this unofficial rule, which they often see

as an almost religious absolute.

But the world has changed, and with it, aviation.

And some of the most important reasons that anti-

speculation gatekeepers give for onlookers keeping

mum simply don’t make sense anymore, even though

admittedly, there are a number of really good reasons

to temper our views anyway.

When an aviation accident occurs, pilots under-

standably want to know why it happened. There are

a lot of aviation accidents, too. Too many. In the last

calendar year for which the NTSB published end-of-year

statistics, there were 1,233 accidents. Of those, 203 were

fatal, with 331 lives lost. Safety in this segment, mostly

personal and self-flown business aviation, is getting

better, but 1,233 accidents are far too

many no matter how you spin it. At the

same time, pilots understand that we will

likely never completely eliminate aviation

mishaps. It’s part of the nature of human

bodies going very high and very fast in

complex machines.

With few exceptions, pilots under-

stand—how could you not—that there

are risks associated with what we do. And

almost without exception, pilots want to

better understand the nature of the risks

we do face, not out of morbid curiosity,

but rather, so we can do things to cut that

risk. And there are real steps we can take, whether it’s

improving our planes’ safety gear, perhaps by installing

improved restraints in an older plane, or by signing up

for non-mandatory recurrent training, maybe an IFR

refresher course.

So understanding why accidents happen in general,

and why specific accidents happened, is simple survival

instinct. Even though the non-pilot population is also

keenly interested in aviation accidents, their interest in

most cases is fundamentally different from a pilot’s. As

is their understanding of the variables. Suffice it to say

that aviation is very complicated, so it’s unreasonable

to expect non-experts in aviation matters to possess a

high level of understanding of the nature of the risks we

face on various fronts, including weather, mechanical

uncertainties, pilot performance and other factors.

Much of what we do as lifelong aviation learners, which

all pilots must be, is to better understand the factors

that go into the many ways a flight might come to harm,

which is often referred to as “risk assessment.” We do

this every time we fly, or at least we should. We also do

it by studying mishaps.

MYSTERY ADDICTION

So when a high-profile accident happens, such as the

crash of a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter that claimed the

lives of nine people, including global basketball legend

Kobe Bryant, in Southern California in January, there’s

no shortage of interest, some of it practical, some of

it that seems more related to less honorable motives.

People love a mystery, and human nature being

what it is, the more tragic the tale, the

more gripping the search for answers.

This is nothing new. Over the years,

the most popular books, right behind

romances, have been mysteries.

And these days the hottest segment

isn’t fiction at all, but true crime. Movies,

television series, documentaries, books

and podcasts that deal with real-life

bad guys, proven or merely suspected,

are popular beyond easy explanation.

The more seemingly impenetrable the

mystery, the more boundless the public’s

fascination with it becomes. Who com-

mitted the Burger Chef murders? What happened to

Susan Powell? And who’s responsible for the Austin

yogurt shop killings? For each of these cold cases, there

are active online communities, armies of amateur

sleuths who spend untold hours speculating and, in

some cases, researching the crimes.

In aviation, we have our own mysteries, though

our fascination with them is tempered, to a degree at

least. The list of long-lasting mysteries include the loss

of Malaysia Flight 370, with 239 lives presumed lost;

the disappearance of U.S. Representatives Hale Boggs

and Nick Begich and two others in Alaska in 1972 on a

Speculation Shaming

How we talk about accidents has changed. Here’s why that’s okay.

❯ ❯ “While these

mysterious mishaps

have captured the

imagination of the

mainstream media

and non-aviation

onlookers, there are

many, many accidents

that get only local

attention, if that.”