At 16:57 22 January 2018, Branko Stojkovic wrote:
This is terrible news! IGC needs to do something about safety at
WGC and
GP=
events, as well as at all other gliding contests!

For starters, IGC must establish a portal where reports and
analyses of
all=
accidents and incidents in all IGC sanctioned competitions will be
posted,=
including the IGC files and including any corrective actions taken.
The
cu=
lture of sweeping the accidents and incidents under the carpet so
that the
=
organizers can claim that they had a successful competition needs
to stop
a=
nd that needs to happen very soon.

I have personal experience in these matters and I think that this
tragic
ev=
ent is an opportunity to change the prevailing culture of
downplaying and
i=
gnoring the dangers of our sport.

A year ago, as a Serbian team captain at WGC in Benalla I
witnessed many
un=
safe events, including two midairs. I sat in a number of team
captain's
mee=
tings and pilot's briefings where these events were discussed, but
no
concr=
ete or decisive action was taken and no pilot was penalized for
unsafe
flyi=
ng.

Back in 2014, during the last practice day before the WGC in
Rayskala,
Finl=
and I myself, flying an Arcus-T, came frighteningly close to causing
a
majo=
r accident right at the Rayskala airfield in front of many onlookers.
This
=
accident, which I somehow managed to avoid, could have resulted
in
multiple=
injuries and/or fatalities. However, the psychological damage to
the two
o=
f us inside the glider, and to the fellow glider pilots on the ground
that
=
we nearly crashed into, wasn't avoided. I reported the incident to
the
safe=
ty committee and submitted to them my IGC log file. I
subsequently had a
co=
uple sessions with the safety committee members, in which we
discussed
what=
happened. After that, I was allowed to fly in the competition
without any
=
repercussions. The incident was never officially mentioned, let
alone
revie=
wed and analyzed.

Branko Stojkovic
XYU


The radio commentary on the last SGP task was interesting -
especially from the Chilean commentator. 'We don't fly in that area
so low' or similar words where repeated a number of times for the
southern portion of the task.

Whether this is related to the accident or not I do not know - but it
certainly seemed boundaries where being pushed a little during that
task.