For the Slovak air force this is the end of the investigation:
Human Factor Confirmed as Cause of Military Plane Crash
The most likely reason for the aircrash of an AN-24 military plane in January, was human error, as the flight crew were not using flying instruments; instead, they were relying on manual controls, according to the Slovak Army General Staff.
It strikes me as more like the beginning of one. The main thing is to stop this happening again, so we need to know who made mistakes. Why were the crew not using instruments? I can think of a few hypotheses:
- overconfidence - the flight crew thought it was just a routine hop and didn't bother to use instruments. Big mistake. Air traffic control needs to enforce correct procedure, planes should be checked on landing that safety equipment was used. Pilots who act like gods should be punished. In fact, I heard that Slovak air force pilots get much fewer hours in the air than commercial pilots so they are probably under-trained. Maybe they need more.
- drink - the soldiers were going home. It was a big party for them. Maybe a bit of vodka got into the cockpit. Then it's the same as over-confidence.
- saving money - maybe the ground radar uses too much power and fuel, so they have a policy of cutting corners for a few crowns. This needs to end. Modern soldiers are not like the canon fodder of thirty years ago. They are not just going to do human waves against the imperialists' tanks or machine gun protesting students. They're supposed to know languages, chemicals, build bridges, do police work. And Slovakia has a declining birth rate, so you can't just wait for a few more to come along. You have to keep your troops alive at any cost. And if you don't have money then send them on SkyEurope or a bus. I mean, there are hardly suicide bombers lining the roads in Hungary and it wasn't like they were going to do anything urgent in Kosice the next day.
No way does "human error" clean up anything. Of course, the cabin voice recorder was destroyed so it's difficult to say any more but they need to inquire about what goes on on other flights, how people were behaving before take-off. But I doubt we'll get any of that. The press were happy to have someone to blame and got into a completely irrelevant discussion about whether the pilot's family should get compensation. So we will probably have to wait until it happens again for a proper report.
1 komentárov:
You really haven't got this have you ? ... Everyone was to blame ..Pilot , Hungarian and Slovak ATC for allowing the pilot to use his own landing judgement at night ..the rules allow him to do this at night ONLY in special circumstances .. both ATC's should have controlled him across the hills. But when he offered , they both went for a cup of coffee ( or back to sleep )
The plane also did not have the all the safety 'landing' equiptment, as the government felt it was not needed and turned the proppsal down , because it would cost a few millon Euro . ( how wrong can you be, hence the Minister to blame resignation ? )
The pilot is the was the asy one to blame, as dead man cannot defend himself . As always in Slovakia , easy way to close a case of Slovak incompetence and the living are never to blame .
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