For Jay Honek

Hi Jay;

I'm going to try something here. It may work. It may not, but I'll give
it a go anyway just to see how you and the group in general react. If
this post illicit a bad response, I'll call it a day on this issue. If
it doesn't, I'll be glad to discuss it with those interested.

First of all, I would like to thank you for making an effort at cleaning
up the video page by deleting the word "enjoy" . That was personally
hard for me to take, as I had a friend dying in one of those videos. You
might consider also changing the link on the main page from "cool stuff"
to something less "inviting", but that is entirely up to you.
Aviation crash video is a very useful tool. In the right environment, it
can be invaluable to safety investigators researching probable cause. In
the airshow community, we welcome these videos, as they represent a much
better and more solid base from which to view a crash than even the eye
witness accounts, which unfortunately are subject to varying degrees of
inaccuracy for several reasons that I won't get into here.
When I say the right environment for viewing crash video, I'm talking
about an environment where interested parties are gathered in closed
session with expert investigators for the express purpose of using the
video for safety related reasons. This invariably includes experts in
the aircraft type, as all useful safety data being discussed will be
type specific. I say this clearly because many of those who would use
crash video on public sites like to push the safety and "educational"
issues in justifying the showing of the videos. Likewise, many of those
who like to view the crash videos; even pilots; like to justify the
video's value by stating that they indeed have learned something from
watching the video.
Indeed, the pilot of a Cessna 172 or a Cherokee 180 can look at the
crash of Czar 52 out of a knife edge turn during an airshow and then be
able to say, "Man, I'm NEVER going to do THAT in MY pattern!!!!!!"
In that most basic sense, you can assume of course that this pilot
somehow managed to go through the entire training process and his entire
flying experience not realizing that "flying an airplane" states
emphatically that he shouldn't be doing knife edge turns in his airplane
in the pattern, and that by viewing this particular video, he has been
"educated" not to do this. In this sense, you could actually say that
this pilot was "helped" by this video, and also in this sense, you have
made the case for the safety issue. But in actuality, if this pilot
needed to see this video to impress him with this information, the REAL
safety issue here isn't the knife edge B52 teaching him a lesson, but
rather that this pilot needs some serious basic rework!
The point is that pushing the safety issue as justification for putting
these videos on a public site is a known tool for those who wish to show
crash videos simply for their entertainment value. In the professional
world, we know this and mostly accept it. We do manage to lose our
tempers once in a while as you no doubt have noticed :-)
The bottom line on showing crash video the way you are doing it is this
Jay.
If you have to do it, no one can and should try and stop you. It's your
right and your site as they say. There will be those who like it and
those who don't.
It's not really a big deal either way. You have seen reaction from both
sides of this issue, and I believe I have explained clearly here how we
in the professional community see the issue.
For me personally, as I said, I appreciate your effort to clean up the
site and attempt to present these videos in the best light possible. I
would respectfully suggest to you along these lines that you consider
changing the link "cool stuff" to something a bit more appropriate to
viewing someone die. That would please me personally. The gist of what I
have told you and others here about how we view the safety issue is
entirely up to everyone's individual interpretation.
Sincerely,
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship
Flight Instructor/Aerobatics/Retired