I really shouldn't be getting involved in this one again, but here goes nothing...
I think what Owen and Monty are taking exception to is the idea that the crash was
all Captain Komar's fault. Giving him personally a jail sentence is clearly pointing the finger squarely at him - the fact that noone else has been prosecuted shows that.
In today's Sydney Morning Herald online is this article:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/despair-...0406-9ux2.html
Right below it online is a link to this one:
http://www.smh.com.au/world/another-...0406-9ux0.html
Read those two articles closely and see if you make the same connection I did. Especially read and think about the last few words in the first paragraph of the second one. The situation as I see it is much more complicated than hysterically pointing accusing fingers while saying that "
HE ignored heaps of warnings and
HE didn't go around and it was all
HIS fault".
I'll even make it easy for you:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by The Sydney Morning Herald
AN INDONESIAN military aircraft crashed in the city of Bandung yesterday, adding to the three mid-air emergencies and a crash landing in the past six weeks that are testament to the deep problems with Indonesia's air safety.
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Do you see it? I'll emphasise it for you:
Quote:
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deep problems with Indonesia's air safety
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One more time:
Quote:
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deep problems with Indonesia's air safety
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The point I am trying to make is so very subtle that even the SMH does not appear to have made the connection. It really comes down to something quite simple:
It is very unfair to place the blame on the shoulders of one man.
An accident is very very rarely the fault of just one person. An accident is usually a symptom of a much deeper problem, a problem seated deep within an organisation, one that's part of its culture. Note that culture in this context is more than simply what country the company is from. Culture is 'the way we do things around here' and flows from the top, down. The example of 'the way they do things over there' that is referenced in the above article is of companies instructing engineers to repair unservicable bits of equipment rather than buying a new one, or pilots being rewarded for saving fuel. Clearly these are not particularly helpful for system safety as we might define it.
It is reasonable to assume that we are all essentially rational - ie in general we want to do the right thing. We want to make the right decisions. Sure, Captain Komar was the 'guy who made the mistake' that brought the whole world crashing down. But it is wise to consider what other, external factors contributed to Captain Komar's judgement on that day - factors which are not necessarily entirely under his control. Jailing just one man while saying "it was all
HIS fault" is not an effective way to deal with the deeper issues that are at play in Indonesian aviation.