Cop Out ComAir

[flyover]

We would only add to the tragedy by saying that the Captain did not hold the ultimate responsibility, without learning the lessons so readily gleened as a professional pilot community so that this NEVER happens again. We can only do that if we hold that Capatain and ourselves so accountable.

If all we do is say the captain is at fault so don't ever do that again we learn nothing, and it will happen again.

Here's the lesson. Pilots are human. We perform repetitive tasks extremely well. But if you have a task where it's relatively easy to make a mistake, and you perform it enough times, the mistake will be made.

So a solution, among others, is to use any automation (available now and certainly in the future) to backup the pilots and warn them when they are using the wrong/too short runway. You can bet the 787 will have such a system.

 

[towhook]

Spot on Tony C. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

 

[ready2fly]

Spot on Tony C. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

From a legal standpoint, having worked in the aviation litigation field myself for a number of years, TonyC is indeed "spot on".

As a professional pilot myself, my gut wants to say "it's not the pilots fault," but the black and white and gray innards of the law, TonyC's observations above are correct.