The Far Queue

During his research for this book, the author discovered a disturbing trend...

I lay no claim to this discovery being unique. I came across many articles where the writers or officials involved had expressed disquiet about the issue I shall raise here. The problem is that the voices being raised are scattered and they tend to be drowned-out by the hub-hub that follows in the wake of any airliner accident. Perhaps the clamour is orchestrated? Perhaps it is a convenient smoke-screen? Why? Well...

In most cases I have studied in the past 25 years, an airliner accident will generate two actions in short order. Firstly, the manufacturer involved will issue press statements and get someone on the evening news offering every assistance to the airline and/or state of registry in the investigation. Behind the scenes, however, the manufacturer will also be getting a team of specialists - engineers, designers and lawyers - to check if any blame can be laid at the feet of the plane-maker for an oversight or design flaw that has been lurking undiscovered and, given that their "assistance to the operator" will place them right at the heart of the investigation, they will be able to glibly say - by the time the eventual report is published - that they have "already taken action" on the issue.

When the public hearings are conducted, the manufacturers will instruct their legal teams to forcefully attack every theory (and in many cases any individual supporting such a theory) that remotely points a finger towards the manufaturer, its testing and/or certification methods should the prime cause (or even a relatively minor contributory cause) be due to a testing or manufacturing oversight.

The simple, unvarnished truth is often the first casualty as the order books are protected and the court of public opinion is massaged to keep the share price up. Airlines also hire their legal teams to protect their interests in a similar manner.

The legal system that allows multi-million Dollar claims to be lodged agains the manufacturers has created a scared, self-protective and egotistical monster in the person of airliner manufacturers and operators that will quite literally stop at nothing - including the real truth - to ensure that no blame at all is laid at their feet - no matter what they may or may not have done.

The logical progression of this process is that we may eventually arrive at a stage where we may as well just ask the manufacturer or operator what they want published as the cause and leave things at that. The problem is, of course, that airline passengers have - in effect - become regarded as test targets and that the real causes are being obfuscated in many airline accidents where manufacturing or operational procedures have caused the accident.

At the core of this problem lies the fact that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States, which is largely the principle body upon whom the rest of the world relies in regard to certification of airliners, has the dual role of policing and promoting civial aviation. It is impossible for a government agency to effectively regulate an industry in regard to measures that may cost that same industry millions of Dollars, and to promote the industry that needs an operating cost as low as possible. There are inevitable conflicts and these conflicts lead to a "its' good enough - its worked so far hasn't it?" ethos.

Worldwide airline aviation urgently needs to have the oversight and promotional roles of administrative bodies clearly seperated. Manufacturers and operators need to be investigated as clearly as are the aircrew and other factors whenever there is an accident in order for the plain truth to be uncovered in accidents. A culture of blame and corporate spin-doctoring is an insidious problem that is serving to obscure unpalatable facts wherever they are found as people and organisations take cover. A no-blame culture is required if we are to learn properly from aviation tragedies and to continue to improve the level of safety from the current "very good" state to "as close to perfection as possible."