If he's alive nail him, if he's dead blame him !

Letter by Jet airways pilot who crash landed in Goa
If he's alive nail him, if he's dead blame him !
(Written based on 9W at VOGO on 27/12
Aviation is a strange profession ! I love it to death but the strange part is, if I meet my end in my line of work it's most likely that I'll be blamed. I'll be blamed long before any proof is brought forward, I'll be blamed by the media, I'll be blamed by people, I'll be blamed by the passengers if they survive. In a week the Data recorders will be analysed and then maybe they'll find that it's not my fault ! That I fought for hope amidst hopelessness till my dying breath.
Sadly that won't make as good a headline as "pilot error", "pilot veers off runway when aligning for takeoff". In fact it was nothing to do with aligning that brought this ill fated crew to a halt just short the peripheral wall at Dabolim this morning.
How I wish I could explain concepts of asymmetric thrust to the number of people passing silent judgement and being armchair jurors! How do I tell someone about how much thrust 27 thousand odd pounds is. How do I reiterate what a reverser unlock is. How do I tell the person that the same 27 thousand pounds is now in an opposite direction. Most of the crowd probably doesn't even know what a moment arm is or a couple. They dropped physics in 8th grade as it was to complex. That said they blame the human machine who earns his bread and butter, putting in to practice what they felt was too complicated! To be honest it's disgusting flying this kind of passenger and taking responsibility for his life for however long it may be!
How do I explain not being able to see three taxiway lights in front of me to a crowd that says anyway you auto land in fog ? How !? It's at the brink of frustration that I'm writing this !
Back in the day an old grey instructor told me, "son in this world of civil aviation its best to be a nameless faceless pilot who does his job and goes home!". I probably didn't understand it then but now, more than ever I totally understand. The sad part is be it a Cactus 1511 with Sully or the 9W aircraft.
Sadly with technology improving in the home and workplace the human has become the weak link. Sometimes ones must note that the human is the strongest link. Without them shutting down the malfunctioning engine they might have gone into the terminal increasing the statistics of loss of life!
As an appeal to the non aviation public, believe that we as pilots love what we do and would never put anyone's life in jeopardy! We are sons, daughters, wives, husbands, parents, just like you. We haven't fallen from the realm of Asgard and into the helm of these metal ships, it takes years of hard work to achieve it.
Media folk this is an appeal to you! It's you whose sensationalized our profession with scandal, malpractice, etc. Paint the right picture of pilots worldwide. Tell people that we are there to save lives not take them ! Make an honest effort to redeem your name when you're standing at heaven's gates or you'll probably have the boatman remove you from the boat. Educate the masses who you manipulate to get more views to the actual facts of thrust, lift, weight and drag! Tell them from start to finish what happens from takeoff to touchdown. Do tell them when they see that wind looping out of the window and the tip moving, there is a hand guiding this giant metal bird through the skies !


Comments

  1. Very well written. Due to advent of social media and google people think they are experts in everything.

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  2. You never know to whom you are actually addressing

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    1. Especially when they are anonymous.....

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    2. He doesn't know whom he is a dressing too. And you don't want to disclose who you are

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  3. Every thing gets sensationalised these days by media...and yes Pilots/Drivers are big targets. It's horrible to see how people start judging a profession with no technical knowledge about the same.

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  4. I feel for the pilot, but it's Strange no pilot ever wrote something like this in defence of all pilots earlier. I am trying to recall if anyone ever came forward to protect an Indian Airlines pilot being judged by the same public and media...

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  5. Strange....same thing people think about doctors....being a doctor/pilot is like being a goalkeeper,it doesn't matter how many goals you save,people will remember how many you left...

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  6. really I find it strange that a Professional Pilot has to write a letter to a grey arm chair public, he is not answerable to them but to a body of PROFESSIONAL PEERS who will come to the right assessment of fault through the aid of CVR/BLACK BOX and de-briefing , as a ex pilot I immediately assumed asymetrical thust due to various reasons, to be finalised and judged by Professional Air crash investigators who are all ex pilots them selves .... if fact the media has put out various versions of the event , from aborted take off to nose wheel failure , who or where did they get these theories from ??? I find this letter an absolute fake and dont think the actual pilot has written it, in fact he is not allowed to comment or speak to anyone till he/she is debriefed ... so ????

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  7. have worked in the aviation Industry,Pilots are an expensive commodity, 1st instinct is to save them if the need arises, if pilot perishes in the incident, then save others by blaming the dead, dead cant defend themselves.

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  8. Unfortunate!!! We as humans r selfish, try blame the other & take mileage if it. Imagine reporter the shooting the accident victim, instead of lending his hand to help him.. disgusting

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  9. Dear VK, if you r true and did your best.dont bother and keep going strong.

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  10. OMG sir your job is tough. But its still your job, and you still failed at it. And now instead of taking the responsibility for your failure you are making fun of people who "dropped physics in 8th grade". I mean really, thats what we should do right, when we fail at our own job, we should write a blog on how difficult it is and make fun of others for not understanding its complexities. You were content with taking huge salaries that are associated with your job because of the nature of the complexities of the job, but you don't want to take the blame when things go wrong because of the same complexities. You, dear sir, are a true loser.

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    1. You see, it's people like you that pilot should address. You dont know what it's like to work as a pilot. There are some factors that aren't in our control. I am assuming you didnt understand half of the technical aviation terms he used. In that case you are the true loser.

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    2. as a pilot myself, i say, if you arent a pilot and really have no idea the complexities of flying....keep your mouth shut. put up or shut up!

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  11. How unwise to blame the passengers for pilot error verdicts! Blame the investigators, who also used to be some sort of pilots. Passengers have the bad habit of dying in the crash too, you know...

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  12. Thanks for the letter by Pilot Vikas Kaushik,Its eye opener to all humans. Hats Of To You Mr Vikas ������

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  13. very well written, it a job John Q public is generally lacking on what it takes to have a safe flight from push back to chocks on. stay safe, happy flying

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  14. Very well written. I don't know what happened in this accident, but even if at the end it is found the flight crew made mistakes, that doesn't mean they are guilty or they have to be nailed or punished. No one failure, human or technical, is sufficient to cause an accident. Rather, it involves the unlikely and often unforeseeable conjunction of several contributing factors arising from different levels of the system. Maybe you'll fn his article interesting https://livingsafelywithhumanerror.wordpress.com/2016/12/08/when-the-error-comes-from-an-expert-the-limits-of-expertise/

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  15. Well, fake or true, many factors determine who is to blame when the thigs go south. Political agendas, insurance cartell, revenge, common belief that the human is a weak link etc. The list is long. I, as a court expert whitnessed proceedings which in process to address real culprits which would exonerate pilots, grinded to a halt by some divine intervention where the press got the transcripts with blanked out pages.
    I had personally participated in proceedings which were led and discussed by professionals of highest qualifications. In the end, my conclusion was, that in the course of six months, those educated and experienced experts couldn't reach a decission and the defendant had only about 30 seccond to act. And assuptions will still sell the news, better than the truth.

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  16. Am affraid you further expose your scant knowledge of the industry by talking about huge salaries. You sound like a pilot wannabe from the '70s !

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  17. Although what you have said has a point. But you are also doing what you are accusing of public of doing - rundown the reputation first. Otherwise why would you say something like They dropped physics in 8th grade as it was to complex. Most people I know who have become pilots were duds at studies. So you correlation that pilots are physics genius is out of place and you are only trying to deride the public with assumption that most people hate physics at school. Whether or not I know medical concepts but if a doctor has botched up that is immaterial and at the same time to blame every doctor for every unsuccessful operation is wrong. As per NTSB statics in 2004 75% of all the accidents happened because of pilot errors, in 2015 more than 40 pilots tested positive for alcohol while on duty in India alone, in 2011 14 pilots were caught in India with fake licenses and probably many more undetected.

    I agree blaming the pilot at first instance is wrong but as per statistics that carries more than 50% chances of being true.

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  18. The greatest example of public rage is when a driver of any vehicle hits a jay walker. Its always the driver's mistake!

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  19. Innocent until proven guilty, unless you're a pilot, then it's guilty until proven competent. By which time it's often too late and you, your family, and your legacy is already tarred and feathered by a media that won't conduct the same showboating to clear your name as they did to condemn it. It's a sad fact of the profession. Couple that with the terrible debt and quality of life one has to endure to start out in this trade, and it's hardly any wonder that fewer and fewer people see it as a viable option.

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