Atsb Report Into Old Bar Incident

[Guest Michael Coates]

nobody is safe from lawyers in the us.... they will chase anything. heard the otherday they were suing sun screen makers, you know the 15plus creams cause you could still get burnt in the sun whilst wearing the sun screen ??? you have got to worry about them.

 

 

[Wayne T Mathews]

nobody is safe from lawyers in the us.... they will chase anything. heard the otherday they were suing sun screen makers, you know the 15plus creams cause you could still get burnt in the sun whilst wearing the sun screen ??? you have got to worry about them.

In a previous life, I worked with a couple of lawyers over in the States. One of them, Mark, told me a yarn about an ocurrence in a bar frequented mainly by lawyers, just down the road from the Supreme Court.

 

Mark said that one lunchtime, a mountain of a man burst through the swinging doors and stood just inside, glaring around at the dozens of suited dinners congregated in the room. In a voice like rumbling thunder, he roared, "ALL LAWYERS ARE JERKS!"

 

A little, weedy, but well dressed chap at the other end of the room leapt to his feet and pounded the bar with his fist as his stool crashed to the floor.

 

"I OBJECT," the little chap said.

 

With a smile, the Big man ambled down to tower over the little chap.

 

"That's because you're a lawyer, isn't it?" The big man said.

 

"Hell NO!" The little chap declared. "It's because I'm a jerk."

 

My apologise in advance to anyone this yarn may offend. But I swear, it was told to me by an aviation specialist lawyer who back in the early '90s, before I knew him, was on the short list of people to head up the FAA. And yes, he was a bloody good bloke to work with/for.

 

 

[Spin]

I am uncomfortable with the assumption that what went on in one corner of Taree, applies across the field of aircraft manufacturing and maintenance in Aus; seems to harken back to the "could have happened to anyone" attitude that prevailed immediately after the incident, before the ATSB report opened the can of worms so to speak. In not distancing ourselves from what appears to be a systematic failure to adhere to accepted aviation standards, we are in effect telling the rest of the aviation fraternity that we are not capable of administering ourselves. I don't for one minute believe that is the case; yes this accident has revealed shortcomings in the oversight of manufacturers by the governing authority, but provided that RA can show that they are addressing this and quickly too, I see no reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

 

The same goes for the pilot's actions I'm afraid; I've said it before elsewhere, but if the aircraft had missed the ferris wheel, he would still have been flying over a considerable crowd of people at well under 100', having barely cleared the fence and possibly not being able to clear the trees beyond the wheel. I am willing to bet that the assembled throng would have been baying for his blood and phrases like "criminally irresponsible" would have been used to describe his actions. The fact that he actually collided with the wheel does not diminish the severity of his transgressions, if anything it makes it worse, because literally thanks only to intervention of the applicable deity did we avoid multiple fatalities and injuries. We would be facing a very different legal and social landscape if the worst had occurred.

 

 

[Guest DavidH10]

There have been quite a few "assumptions" made that are not supported by the publicly available evidence. Of course some may turn out to be valid, but only the passage of time and the investigation outcome will reveal the actual situation(s).

 

In the interim, drawing invalid conclusions won't be helpful. On the other hand, exploring what-ifs can be useful to a wide audience if it is made clear that the proposition is hypothetical.