Re: Buffalo Crash Sparks Debate Over Use of Cockpit Recordin
Well, this should liven things up a bit, but here goes...
I think this whole thing may be out of context. I am not sure what Colgan management really is intending, so won't address that. However, I can say for a fact that video cameras, with audio, would help us sort out what happened in accidents and help us prevent future ones. In terms of looking at them outside the context of an accident/incident, I think it could be done much like FOQA now.
Unfortunately, despite the rhetoric, in my experience of working on both sides, I have found that the union is more likely to kill a true safety advancement for some non-safety related reason (in this case, misplaced "privacy" concerns), than is management due to a non-safety issue (usually cost). Airlines and manufacturers are constantly accused of putting $$ before safety, and, as they owe a duty to their shareholders, we do expect them to do that (and should not be mad if they do), but I have found that, in actual fact, they are rarely not reasonable about the issues. On the other side, I have seen it a lot of times, where the political side told the safety side that "we're not going to do that". It is sad, but true. Looking out for privacy is of little consolation if people might die as a result. This is NOT a normal office job!
If the information were protected through a cooperative FOQA type approach, it would be very beneficial. In fact, we might find that we would be exonerating pilots that would otherwise have been blamed in an accident due to lack of supporting evidence to point otherwise. I am fairly sure that would happen more times than not. On the other end, we might be better able to identify trends and conduct training before an accident were to occur. We would see that the pilot actually did hit a switch, but maybe it didn't quite "take" and bounced back, or they tried to push that rudder hard but a loose object (that later got knocked out of the way) prevented that control input, etc., etc.
And sorry, I do not agree that line checks and checkrides address this issue. As has been pointed out, people do behave differently when they have someone sitting there watching them in person. Knowing that it might be pulled and viewed randomly might change their behavior also, but in a positive way. More likely, like the CVR, they'd forget about it soon.
The information could be pulled, and transcribed by the union, and then a sanitized version presented to the company or handled via the union's pro stan committee, as another alternative to all of this.
Finally, just FYI, the company already owns those CVR tapes. While they likely couldn't use it in court to go after someone, what is there to stop them from just randomly pulling and listening to them now and not telling anyone? Guess what? Nothing!
So, the choice really is to make it official and have a process or just not be part of it.
