Knee Jerks

Why is it everytime someone posts an accident, there are those who
quickly make a decision or pronouncement that it was stupid, or the
pilot was a moron, or, etc, etc, and never have a clue as to the real
happenings?
Why does it take well trained professional crash investigators to do a
full investigation that may last several weeks, months, years, to
determine what happened when they could just take a quick look here and
see what the "experts" have to say?
There have been several crashes in recent days which is disturbing as
hell to me and they have been well publicized. In nearly all of these
crashes, there have been eye witnesses who breathlessly describe what
they saw, or THINK they saw and the media laps it up as if it were
gospel. Often the witness can't tell the difference in a Cessna and a
Piper or a JetRanger. Then, to make matters worse, there are those
amatuers, and a few more pros, who make immediate pronouncements as to
what happened and who is to blame.
I have been guilty of making statements in the past that turned out to
be only partly right because I didn't have all the facts. In 50 years
of flying I've learned that if you aren't in the airplane or ar not
doing the flying, or are not looking right at the action with a
professional eye, why make a fool of yourself with knee jerk
statements?
Dudley, if you are still here, what do you think? You've been around
long enough and have been to enough crashes to have some ideas on the
subject.
Rocky

wrote:

Then, to make matters worse, there are those
amatuers, and a few more pros, who make immediate pronouncements as to
what happened and who is to blame.

I concluded that pilots, at least those whom I encountered locally, who
were too quick to label an accident pilot were either overcompensating for
their own aviation insecurities/inabilities or just had an overly large
ego.

--
Peter

wrote:
Why is it everytime someone posts an accident, there are those who
quickly make a decision or pronouncement that it was stupid, or the
pilot was a moron, or, etc, etc, and never have a clue as to the real
happenings?

Maybe because some of us are tired of seeing accidents posts in an ng
titled "piloting" rather than "crashing" or "gory" or ... you get the point.


Matt

is crashing not a part of piloting?

buttman wrote:
is crashing not a part of piloting?

No.

buttman wrote:
is crashing not a part of piloting?

Not if you are a good pilot.


Matt

wrote in message
ups.com...
Why is it everytime someone posts an accident, there are those who
quickly make a decision or pronouncement that it was stupid, or the
pilot was a moron, or, etc, etc, and never have a clue as to the real
happenings?
Why does it take well trained professional crash investigators to do a
full investigation that may last several weeks, months, years, to
determine what happened when they could just take a quick look here and
see what the "experts" have to say?
There have been several crashes in recent days which is disturbing as
hell to me and they have been well publicized. In nearly all of these
crashes, there have been eye witnesses who breathlessly describe what
they saw, or THINK they saw and the media laps it up as if it were
gospel. Often the witness can't tell the difference in a Cessna and a
Piper or a JetRanger. Then, to make matters worse, there are those
amatuers, and a few more pros, who make immediate pronouncements as to
what happened and who is to blame.
I have been guilty of making statements in the past that turned out to
be only partly right because I didn't have all the facts. In 50 years
of flying I've learned that if you aren't in the airplane or ar not
doing the flying, or are not looking right at the action with a
professional eye, why make a fool of yourself with knee jerk
statements?
Dudley, if you are still here, what do you think? You've been around
long enough and have been to enough crashes to have some ideas on the
subject.
Rocky

Those of us like you and me and others like us who have been in the
professional end of the community for any length of time usually tend to shy
heavily away from the accident speculation business, as we know from actual
experience how often the cause of an accident turns out to be something
other than the obvious.
Dudley Henriques

Dudley Henriques wrote:
Those of us like you and me and others like us who have been in the
professional end of the community for any length of time usually tend to shy
heavily away from the accident speculation business, as we know from actual
experience how often the cause of an accident turns out to be something
other than the obvious.

May be wrong, but it's human nature to speculate...especially when
*some* of the initial reports of the circumstances/events leading up to
them read like connect-the-dots illustrations.

In article ,
unicate says...


May be wrong, but it's human nature to speculate...especially when
*some* of the initial reports of the circumstances/events leading up to
them read like connect-the-dots illustrations.

Speculation is natural, and probably productive, as it makes us think about the
accident process. When you see it happen to someone well trained, in well
conceived equipment, often described by peers as a cautious and concientious,
then it may get you to think "it could have been me. . ."

What's important (and sometimes forgotten) is to be sensitive to the situation,
as some people are suffering through a real tragedy at that moment. If some
family member were to browse to an aviation group looking for answers, only to
read that the pilot must have been an idiot . . .

I think the real knee-jerk, though, is often a defensive reaction. Accidents
give very bad publicity to aviation, and knees jerk all over the place,
particularly anti-aviation knees. Fortunately, injuries to "innocents" on the
ground are exceedingly rare - otherwise airports would be closing at a much
faster rate than they currently are.

Developers with greedy eyes set on airport properties have very sensitive
knees.

Greg

Matt Whiting wrote:
buttman wrote:

is crashing not a part of piloting?


Not if you are a good pilot.


Matt


So, you are saying that all the pilots that had a crash are bad pilots?