Incidents and Accidents over the past few weeks.

[jetrange]

You all probably heard about the different civilian and military aircraft incidents and mishaps that occurred over the past few weeks. The Eglin F-22 crash, the Snowbird Tutor crash, the Eglin F-35 crash, the Pakistan A320 crash in Karachi, and more recently, an F-35 gear collapse and a C-130 running off the runway in Iraq. I think all of these incidents and accidents can be good learning experiences and can make both civilian and military aviation safer.

[asdro]

A Kalitta Charter II/DHL 737-400F skidded over the runway in Rochester after rejected take off.

[TimC340]

I'm curious; are you suggesting that there's anything unusual in these incidents? Aircraft have always crashed. The fact is that every single one is used to inform design of aircraft, components, procedures and training so that fewer incidents will happen in future. That process has been going on since WW1, and aviation is unique in that it does so with a no-blame culture (in most countries) so that people are not cowed into keeping quiet.

When I started flying in the early 1970s, military flying accidents were frequent, and frequently fatal. My Dad was a fighter pilot, and I lost count of the number of funerals I went to of young men who were killed in military aircraft crashes - several of my initial RAF entry of 28 didn't make it into their 30s. The RAF is much smaller now, but deaths in aircraft are few and far between thanks to that learning process. These days, the funerals I go to are of mates dying of old age...

[Victory103]

Before you go off to BMT, you can check out a few Youtube pilots (blancolirio) that go over the recent accidents with factual information, not speculation that happens so quick in today's social media. Even before I was a rated pilot, I would read post-accident reports along with 2 great military aviation safety magazines, USN Approach and Army FlightFax. The idea being if I ever found myself in a situation, the lessons learned might help.

[jetrange]

You make some good points Chris. I have heard and/or seen some video from those Aviation Youtubers, including blancolirio, and I have also learned that it's not really a good idea to speculate or just jump to a conclusion. I'll check out the post accident reports of the recent mishaps when they're released. And to answer your question Tim; I'm not suggesting that there's anything unusual with these recent incidents, I just wanted to get the word out of these recent events. My apologies for the confusing wording in my post.

[TimC340]

No worries. Speculation is human, but it’s incredibly unhelpful and can be very hurtful for those directly involved. These days, with the prevalence of social media, speculation often involves the injection of outright untruths into the mix, as well as conspiracy theories and deliberate misrepresentation.

The organisations which investigate aircraft accidents do so with incredible thoroughness, patience and attention to detail. It takes a long time to fully investigate a complex accident - sometimes several years, particularly if there are no survivors to supply witness statements - and their job is often complicated by the presence of uninformed speculation, which will penetrate even the highest levels of non-expert authority at times.

One of my many roles in the RAF has been Flight Safety Officer on a number of units, and part of the course to become qualified as such was to spend time with the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (NTSB equivalent) to see how they go about their business, and how what they do contributes to improvements in aviation safety. It’s a fascinating business, and well worth some further study.