In the United Kingdom we pride ourselves on having a democracy and a legal system, which assumes that you are innocent until proven guilty. Fortunately for the travelling public, the basis on which air transport accidents and incidents are investigated is stated as ““To improve aviation safety by determining the causes of air accidents and serious incidents and making safety recommendations intended to prevent recurrence
…It is not to apportion blame or liability”, that is according to the lead investigator of the UK’s Aircraft Accident Investigation board.

So far, so good – however in his recent interviews Peter Burkill Captain of the British Airways flight BA038, the 777 which landed just short of the runway at Heathrow he tells a very different story where the pilot is made to feel the villain and a scapegoat when the reality of the situation is very different.

Sadly we are increasingly living in a litigious age, where the first thoughts of an increasing number of individuals and organisations, is not what can we learn from such incidents and who can we thank for being the hero of the hour, but which parties are to “blame” and what monies can be obtained by way of legal actions.

During my studies at City University I was privileged to meet Captain Eric Moody. Eric and his crew became famous during 1982 for an incident where for a while he and his fellow crew piloted the worlds largest glider, a powerless 747 as a result of the engines ingesting volcanic ash. Whilst Eric and his team where in the long term praised for his efforts and skills ensuring a positive outcome to what could of so easily been a major incident, he did allude to a poor handling of the situation within the management of British Airways, and minimal follow up in terms of the stress and physiological effects of such an incident. It would appear that British Airways has learnt little over two decades later.

I like many upon hearing of the crash of flight BA038 at Heathrow, wondered if something unthinkable had happened, like the crew had failed to ensure that enough fuel was on-board for the flight. However within hours of the incident it was looking as if something more complex was likely to be the cause and the fact that Captain Burkhill appeared the following day in a very public press conference with the CEO of British Airways Willie Walsh, made me think that the crew had in-fact been the hero’s of the day, especially given that Willie Walsh was a former pilot, so therefore would have had a better insight into the situation than many airline executives.

However during his interviews Captain Burkhill recounts how he increasingly felt that his piloting skills where under question and that he did not feel he was getting the management support that he so clearly deserved.

What I find most ironic however is when we think of the litigious age in which we live we immediately think of North America as the culprit for this litigious culture and yet it would appear that Captain Chesley Sullenberger experiences after the Hudson River incident could not be more contrasting.

So upon the next incident of this nature, can we collectively treat those professionals involved as more likely to be Hero’s than zero’s and perhaps the likes of Captain Burkhill would be less likely to leave these shores and work overseas.

Roy 5th April 2010