Page 4 - AAA MAY-JUNE 2012 Online Magazine

aERIal vIEW

EDITOR’S NOTE CREDITS

EDITOR
JEREMY TORR
jeremy.torr@gbp.com.sg
ExEcuTIvE PublIshER & cEO
complacency kills ViTTORiO ROssi PRudEnTE
vittorio.prudente@gbp.com.sg
a couple of years back, i went on a demo flight with a well-known aircraft
manufacturer. i was asked to turn up at the airport, with a valid passport, a camera cOO & MaRkETIng DIREcTOR, asIa
siVa sachi
and notebook. i arrived along with a couple of other journalists, was whisked onto siva.sachi@gbp.com.sg
the apron (a minder attended to all the irritating passport formalities), steered up
the gangway and shown a seat. The pilots and crew were very friendly, and seemed aRT DIREcTOR
aRThuR chan
mainly concerned with how many glasses of champagne to serve! i and the other arthur.chan@gbp.com.sg
media people watched through the cockpit door as the plane took off and climbed WEb DIREcTOR
impressively steeply away from the airport. it was a great demonstration of the ElMER ValEncia
speed, convenience and power of the aircraft. it was also extremely dangerous. We elmer.valencia@gbp.com.sg
had no bag checks. no pre-flight briefing. no basic cockpit security at take-off or cIRculaTIOn ManagER
during the flight. no emergency procedures explained. it was a recipe for disaster. KhaiRul naEM
a recent study by us-based Flight safety Foundation noted that out of some 35,000 khairul.naem@gbp.com.sg
recorded unstable approaches in the us, 98.6% continued with the landing anyway. aDvERTIsIng REPREsEnTaTIvEs
“We know it’s dangerous, we’ve got policies that say don’t do it, but everybody is EuropE, MiddlE East, south africa &
doing it anyway,” said Paul Ratté, aviation safety programs director at insurance south aMErica
cOnTacT: ViTTORiO ROssi PRudEnTE
provider usaiG. Trainers agree. Mike carriker, Test & Evaluation chief pilot at TEl: +39 049 723 548 Fax: +39 049 856 0792 MOb:
boeing said that over the 25 years he has been flying, both aircraft and smart +39 335 611 9295
EMail: vittorio.prudente@gbp.com.sg
teaching technologies have improved dramatically. “Yet there has been little change
in training,” he said. Today’s pilots have collision avoidance, automatic warning asEaN, pEoplE’s rEpublic of chiNa, taiwaN,
hoNg KoNg & australasia
systems, multiple backup and redundancy, auto-landing, proximity alarms and cOnTacT: siVa sachi
more. but the insidious extra that comes with all these is complacency. TEl: +603 778 12903/2909 Fax: +603 778 12915
MOb: +601 2905 6825
The kind of complacency that i experienced on that demo flight. and possibly, EMail: siva.sachi@gbp.com.sg
the kind of complacency that allowed human error to creep into the cockpit of usa & caNada
the sukhoi superjet 100 that went down on the slopes of Mt. salak. until the full cOnTacT: JOsh MaYER
details from the flight recorder are extracted, i would be grossly out of order to TEl : +1 972 816-6745 Fax : +1 972 767 4442
EMail : jm@mayeradvertising.com
say that could have been the cause of the crash. but all the technology, all the
systems, all the real-time recorders and fail-safes said a crash like that could not switzErlaNd
cOnTacT: RObERT ROTTMEiER
happen. My heart goes out to the families and loved ones of the journalists and TEl : +41 216 174 412 Fax : +41 216 170 921
other passengers. and slightly chillingly, i realised it could have been me on that MOb : +41 792 104 466
EMail : robertrottmeier@bluewin.ch
demo flight i took two years ago. complacency kills.
israEl
cOnTacT: TaMiR EshEl
TEl : + 972 544 508 028 / +972 989 117 92
Fax : +972 989 199 65
EMail : eshel_tamir@yahoo.com

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