For some things, you don’t need experts.
Anyone who has ever attempted driving cross-country without taking an overnight knows the answer to the question of whether or not fatigue affects your judgment while driving. Of course fatigue has an affect on making serious assessments. It happens while driving on the nation’s highways, so why should it be any different on the nation’s skyways?
But of course the experts have to chime in. At least this time they agree with the rest of the real world that fatigue is hazardous to judgement. Furthermore, there is airline culpability here, since those low-wage pilots were flying cross-country just to get TO work, there’s no way they could start their shift fresh. Pilot Marvin Renslow had flown from his Florida residence to Newark and either had no hotel room, stayed up, or napped in the Newark crew lounge (which at Colgan Air is a fireable offense.) His abysmal training/test record stands as its own worst advocate. Co-pilot Rebecca Shaw who lived in Seattle had just pulled an all-nightter so she could get a free ride to work–and she was sick.
The pilot and co-pilot of the Colgan flight were facing multiple issues. The speed of the plane had dropped. Ice had gathered on the wings. The shaker stick had engaged. Neither pilot nor co-pilot appeared to be familiar with how to handle icing; neither were adequately grounded on emergency procedure; neither knew whether this was a wing or tail stall (which affected whether or not the nose should be down); and neither knew what to do with the shaker stick.
That the pilots were discussing subjects not related to flying is a “red herring.”
Admittedly, they could have been paying more attention to what was going on, but think of how many of us who have driven long distances use conversation to help us stay alert in similar circumstances. Even if they’d been speaking exclusively of the emergency, doing so would not have been the magic bullet that filled in the gaps left by inadequate training. They still would not have known what to do.
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Blackhawk Lawsuit
Benjamin Franklin-Poor Richard’s Almanac
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the message was lost.
For want of a message the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.I’m not a pilot or a helicopter designer. I’m not an aviation engineer, or an aviation mechanic. Not an Aeronautical Scientist, Aerospace Engineer or Aviation Safety Inspector.(Although I do have the resources of 500+ experts in my Anonymous Experts database. I don’t consider myself an expert but I quote the experts.) I’m not even a farrier who pounds nails into horses’ hooves. What I am is a guy who works with people who were in aviation crashes; and I haven’t a clue what a “yaw boost servo” is, but that’s what failed in a Black Hawk crash, injuring two people and killing two. The Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk was owned by the US Army and crashed in Texas A&M College Station, TX.
Someone in the Army performed a tedious and detailed technical readiness assessment to make the decision to purchase this Black Hawk in good faith.
Someone was trusting that Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Sikorsky Support Services, United Technologies Corp., Parker-Hannifin Corp. and Parker Aerospace Group had all their ducks in a row, all the T’s crossed, all the i’s dotted. That is to say that all the helicopter designers, aviation engineers, aviation mechanics, Aeronautical Scientists, Aerospace Engineers and Aviation Safety Inspectors (and all the unnamed professionals of the aforementioned companies) who had brainstormed to create this marvel of engineering, then pushed it to its limits and found it to be without flaw. The helicopter was conceived by, designed by and built by companies who have convinced the world that they know helicopters better than anyone else alive. No one knows more than they how important those tests are.
There were indications of problems long before the flight. I glanced online 2005 notices of the coast guard seeking sources for the servos repair—servos to be used on the Sikorsky H-60 class helicopter. One match does not a conflagration make, but I only looked online for about ten seconds.
The short story: the crew took off in the helicopter, and then it spun to the left until it wrecked. Can you imagine how helpless the pilot and copilot felt? How helpless the two crew who could do nothing? There was that moment aboard when some of them or all of them realized the helicopter was probably going to kill them.
So the “yaw boost servo” contributed to the pilots being unable to control the helicopter. The loss of control and crash were due to the failure of a part. It’s that old thing—kingdom lost for want of a nail.
A couple of people on that helicopter survived. One of them, Matthew J. Smith filed a lawsuit Jan. 14 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas against Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., Sikorsky Support Services, United Technologies Corp., Parker-Hannifin Corp. and Parker Aerospace Group, citing negligence, seeking damage over $100,000. That’s a lot of money for want of a nail. But our armed forces are risking their lives. They need the most reliable equipment—100,000 will not be nearly enough.
Airblue 202: July 28, 2015
Love letter and rose on wooden background,close up
Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.Those are words by another George—the Victorian novelist Mary Anne Evans whose pen name was George Elliot.
“Our dead are never dead to us until we have forgotten them.” No truer words were ever spoken. But there are so many dead to remember in the world of plane crashes. In the world of plane crashes, some disasters manage to make it into the spotlight
Like MH370, where more money has been spent on looking for the wreckage than the families will ever receive;
Like MH17 the casualty of a civil war that looks like it might split the world;
Like Germanwings 9525 whose memorial this weekend in the French Alps leaves so fresh a wound, I wonder how the families will ever heal.Some disasters, big or small, just as tragic, manage to bypass the attention of the world stage. Or people just forget. It is the calendar that calls me to remember this flight, these families, that the world seems to have forgotten. Because it is July 28. The calendar forces me to remember another July 28 back in 2010 when I first heard that Airblue Flight 202, an Airbus 321 with 152 souls aboard, had crashed into the Margalla Hills of Pakistan.
I have heard news that is troubling. That there are families who lost loved ones on Airblue Flight 202 that have still not received compensation. This does not seem just to me, but I am only one man. One man looking at the names of 152 dead, 152 souls whose families, whose lives were abruptly and violently changed. 152 souls multiplied by their families and loved ones. That is a wide reach, a lot of injured hearts and lives.
This is one of those corners of the world I have mentioned before, where life seems to be held cheaply. I grieve for the families‘ loss, the loved ones whose candles were snuffed out, whose birthday songs will never again be sung. Six crew; 119 men. 29 women; 5 children; 2 babies. I say to the victims, the world may have forgotten you. Pakistan, and Airblue may be sweeping you under the rug as if your lives never happened. But you are remembered. Your families have not, and will not forget you. Nor have I.
It is the duty of the living to cry out for justice. So I say this here and now, and hope that someone is listening. Let there be justice and compassion for the families of Airblue202. I never knew you, but I knew some of your families; and on this day of remembrance, this July 28, I will remember you. I will never forget you.
Sincerely,
George Hatcher
Consultant
