ISTOCK/LEOPATRIZI


WORK SAFE By Zac Noble


Steer Clear of PINC


Give your pilots, techs, and managers the freedom to follow safety protocols.


E


VERY MONTH, I REVIEW THE PREVIOUS month’s rotorcraft accident report from the US Helicopter Safety Team. I study it looking for possible clues to what caused the accidents listed. Often, like many of us who’ve been in aviation for


years, I can summarize the sequence of events that led to each crash. What I mean is, give me a typical scenario of an aircraft flying into the ground and with some basic information, I can get a sense of what happened. Did the aircraft take off with adequate fuel? Were there witnesses who said the engine was running when they last heard or saw the aircraft? What was the gen- eral weather trend in the area before the accident or inci- dent? With that little bit of information, a seasoned aircraft pilot or mechanic/engineer can broadly determine why the flight went awry. Usually, we’re right in our assessments. What we can’t surmise is why the pilot or mechanic did what they did to cause the accident.


58 ROTOR DECEMBER 2022


Accident or Crash? For the past few years now, I’ve had an issue with the term “accident.” Is it really an accident if the pilot did something he or she knew to be wrong or out of compli- ance with rules, regulations, or best practices? I don’t think so. If you’re driving your car 90 mph in a 45-mph zone


and you lose control and hit another object, is it an acci- dent? You were intentionally exceeding the posted speed limit in an area where the safe speed was deter- mined to be much lower. Your intentional action resulted in your losing control of the vehicle. That’s not an acci- dent—that’s a crash! In my mind, an accident is when a person does something that results in an unintended consequence. In aviation, we call these occurrences procedural unin- tentional noncompliance, or PUNC. When the event is intentional, it’s known as procedural intentional


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68