Saturday, August 15, 2009

My Preliminary Thoughts On Tenerife Plane Disaster

Having read just the first sketches of what happened, the first thing that comes to mind is how most of the journalists really go after the Dutch pilot, blaming him for everything, and accusing him of arrogance because of celebrity.

It doesn't square with me.

My first impression is that this accident occured because of failures with communications and some communications could not possibly be the fault of the Dutch pilot. Having a squelch come across so he could not even hear a new directive, is not his fault. If he already had one message, why would he think it's anything but just a telecommunications squelch like when a microphone is too close to a speaker? It could have been heard as feedback.

I would put most of the blame on the control tower. They are the ones who are responsible for being explicit and giving directions to both planes.

Some of the directives were oddly worded or vague, and yet the pilots were still asking for clarification and repeating back what they thought the signals were.

What is most odd is the amount of blame put on the celebrity pilot. It sounds more like an attempt to trash his reputation after he's died and like maybe there was some jealousy.

I wonder who all the people were, on those flights. It might be interesting to see.
One woman was a playboy woman and that's all I find.

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