CLOP - Criminal Liability of Pilots

Emnet er like "hot" i dag som for 100 år siden. To foredrag på Flyoperativt Forum 2011 tidligere i måneden fokuserte på flygernes forhold til strafferett kontra havarikommisjoners ønske om å få alle fakta på bordet uten at flygerne skal trues med noe som ofte oppfattes som represalier, ofte basert på politikk fremfor ønske om å hindre tilsvarende ulykker i fremtiden. Nå ser vi at GOL ulykken over Amazonas for flere år siden på nytt har blitt behandlet i en Brasiliansk domstol. Sjekk dette:

Brazil Court Finds U.S. Pilots Guilty in Fatal Midair
American pilots Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino, whose Legacy 600 collided with a Gol Airlines Boeing 737-800 over the Amazon in September 2006, were found guilty yesterday of failing to verify the functioning of the transponder for over an hour by Brazilian federal judge Murilo Mendes. The judge commuted a sentence of four years and four months into community service to be performed in the U.S., and he also suspended the pair’s pilot licenses. It is yet unknown whether the Brazilian sentence is even enforceable in the U.S. Lepore and Paladino were found innocent of five of the six charges against them, including failing to follow the flight plan, turning off the transponder and not reacting correctly to a communications failure. Additionally, the judge discarded allegations that the TCAS was never on during the flight, and that the pilots falsely affirmed that the Legacy was authorized to fly RVSM. Judge Murilo issued identical verdicts for pilot-in-command Lepore and copilot Paladino, saying pilots bear equal responsibility for safety. The pilots will appeal the verdict. All 154 aboard the Gol 737 perished in the accident, while Lepore and Paladino were able to land their crippled jet at a Brazilian military airport.

IFALPA skriver:
The lightness of the sentence, together with the fact that a Brazilian Air Traffic Controller had earlier been found guilty of manslaughter for his role in the case, gives credence to the argument being made in some quarters that the investigators were seeking to make scapegoats of the two pilots.

Cockpit Video Recorder
Mange arbeider for at opptakere skal inn i cockpit og filme flygernes siste sekunder. Flygerne er med rette redde for at slike videosnutter blir gjort tilgjengelig for allmenheten. Det er drøssevis av eksempler på at CVR data er lekket ut. Det vil også skje med videoopptak.
Emnet er nødvendig å forfølge inn i konferansen neste år. Flyoperativt Forum ønsker å utvide begrepet CLOP til også å omfatte flygeledere og flyteknikere. Illustrasjon fra Wikipedia