Aviation crash videos on-line

Thank you for a most decent and intelligent post.
I believe you have fairly described the general gist of this whole
issue. There are many sides to it, and each separately is an entire
issue unto itself.
The video itself isn't really the main issue, which can I guess, be
quite confusing to some people. The video simply exists. It's simply a
record showing an event; an instant in time where someone has suffered a
tragedy, and anyone really, can review that event in time.
The real issue involves the reasons or motivation for why people desire
to both show and view these videos. This is a whole new ballgame, and
opens wide the doors of human curiosity, and even a legitimate desire by
some to learn from a mistake made by another. This is especially true of
pilots, who by their very nature, want to be as safe as they possibly
can be, and honestly believe that looking at what happened to another
pilot might aid them and make them safer. This is a natural trait in a
good pilot, and in the right context when dealing with a crash video
scenario, is actually a positive motivation that shouldn't be
discouraged.
The problem comes in not realizing that in actuality, just watching a
crash video without expert commentary....and by that I don't mean just
having an expert in flight safety on hand to comment on the video like
Jay was suggesting that I do on his site, will yield nothing but
conjecture, which can actually be self defeating as a safety tool! What
is actually needed is comment from an expert familiar with a SPECIFIC
CRASH. Not having this comment available, simply produces conjecture,
which as I said can be self defeating in the safety context, and indeed
can even be misleading and in some cases even dangerous!!
Many pilots don't realize this, and attempt to glean something from just
the video, or from listening to some "expert" in the flight office...and
even to someone recruited in good faith from Usenet as was the attempted
case with me. These "experts" are almost always available for their
"educated" comment. None of this makes a difference in the listener's
acuity on flight safety, although it might make it SEEM that way at the
time, so I discourage the practice whenever I can.
I'm recalling a little joke we used to have when I was doing
demonstration flying. It came up from time to time with some of us
giving it a little different "twist" to suit our individual
personalities, but the gist of it was always the same.
We would have our morning preflight safety meeting before going out to
fly, and invariably somebody would bring this up in one form or another
if we happened to be discussing the different types who came out to
watch us fly. One of our favorite "mythical" targets were the general
aviation types who would be watching us. Mind you we didn't view all of
them in this light....but it only takes one, and that ONE was always
there watching!!!!
The general feeling regardless of which one of us said it was always the
same thought;
"If I go up there and something breaks causing me to dig a hole ten feet
deep in the ground, there will always be at least one of those GA types
out there who has absolutely no idea of what he's talking about telling
anyone he can get to listen to him just what the hell it was that I did
wrong to cause me to kill myself"
You just gotta love human nature!! :-)))
Dudley Henriques
International Fighter Pilots Fellowship


"Jack" wrote in message
. com...
Dudley Henriques wrote:

[....]

I'm fairly convinced that the original
poster (Bogels) pushing all the videos
has motives that are not totally up front.

[....]

It is my hope that the hotel owner (Honek)
will eventually change two remaining things
on his site, if not for me personally, for
those who have died in the videos he has...
"cool stuff"...[and "ENJOY"]....


Dudley,

Reading this thread, I have thought back over the losses of friends
and associates and wondered, since I was not present at their
destruction, if I now had videos of their final seconds would I --
could I -- watch them? Maybe I could, but I probably wouldn't -- not
without some very important goal in mind, perhaps to work directly
with others in order to prevent a similar future occurrence. And it
would always be hard -- always.

Have I watched videos of other fatal crashes? Sure, and I will
again --
and I can when I don't know the people involved. I want to know how
airplanes come apart, what others at those moments would have
witnessed, and a host of other curiosities -- some professional and
some just human. But when the victims are introduced to me
posthumously, in descriptions by those who knew them, and especially
when they are described as decent competent people, the feeling
changes and I become uncomfortable with the viewing.

In fact, the older I get the less pleasant is the viewing even of old
combat footage. Though I applaud our aerial victories, I am sobered by
the implications, as I now have a better developed sense of the
ultimate reality of the images on the film. Maybe some of it is from
an understanding of how easily my own end could have been similar. Or
maybe it's just knowing how small are the differences between us, no
matter what uniform we wear.

I remember when our squadron lost an F-100F with one fatality and one
very badly burned. At the crash site, where a crowd of locals had
gathered, it seemed so wrong to me that these gawkers could just stand
nearby and watch the removal of our victims in their awful state. I
wanted to herd them all away from the site so that viewing of those
damaged bodies could be prevented. It seemed so disrespectful of my
squadron-mates and friends that outsiders, who knew nothing of their
character and their accomplishments and probably little understood the
value of such men to our nation, should be present at such an awful
moment. But now, who knows? Some of the onlookers may have understood
as well as I, but back then it seemed they couldn't possibly
comprehend or accept the obligation such knowledge placed upon them.
And it sure hurt at the time.

These feelings are not unique I know, and I suspect that they are like
yours WRT to the subject of the crash videos. If pictures of the last
moments of my friends were displayed on a web-site, I would _at the
very least_ want there to be some solemnizing of the display and a
strong indication of a sincere desire to avoid the slightest suspicion
of exploitation. Though I think you may have gone overboard a bit in
Honeck's case, I respect your need to seek Justice, or what passes for
it on USENET.


Jack