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Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 16:04:51 -0400
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Subject: RE: [LML] Re: Shannon's Accident Summarized
Thread-Topic: [LML] Re: Shannon's Accident Summarized
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From: "Halle, John" <JJHALLE@stoel.com>

There was a story that navy pilots used to like to tell because it =
involved a marine pilot.  This young lad was on his first carrier =
qualification mission and had received an order to go out and land on =
the boat.  Undaunted by his failure to capture a cable, he braked his =
T-28 to a stop.  The good news was he was still on the boat.  The bad =
news was his nose gear was hanging over the angle deck.  Perceiving, =
correctly, that any further action would require a shutdown, this marine =
proceeded through the shutdown checklist, which included a runup of the =
engine to get the oil circulated prior to shutdown.  Miraculously, the =
airplane stayed on the deck and the marine, having shut the engine down, =
climbed back over the fuselage and jumped to the deck.  A board was =
convened to determine the fate of this intrepid aviator.  It concluded =
that he could not continue in the training program and the reason given =
was "no apparent fear of death."

In reading the final report on Shannon's accident, it occured to me that =
that was as good an explanation as any for the ultimate cause of the =
tragedy.  Despite obvious warning signs over an extended period of time, =
Shannon continued not to associate the known facts with the possibility =
that they could kill him.  Even after the engine had apparently given =
him unmistakable notice of termination, he does not appear to have =
grasped the possibility until a few seconds before impact.  =
Unfortunately, the only kind of training that makes much difference in =
this area is training that you don't always survive.  As far as I can =
tell from the report, Shannon's skill as a pilot (i.e. the stuff you can =
train on) had nothing to do with the accident.  Theoretical training =
aimed at taking risk seriously is rarely effective for very long.  =
(Remember the crash movies from drivie's ed?  How long did they slow you =
down?)

If there is a silver lining in this cloud, it is the opportunity that =
the rest of us have to re-examine whether we have an adequate fear of =
death.  Maybe we wouldn't do what Shannon did but we do similar things.  =
I left Oshkosh a few hours before Shannon did.  On the way home I flew =
within five miles of a Level 5 thunderstorm that I found out about from =
ATC.  Seriously dumb move and it is only a matter of luck that we all =
read about Shannon instead of everyone else reading about me.  How many =
of us have stretched fuel capacity just a bit and got away with it?  How =
many have flown into worse than anticipated weather and gotten through =
by doing things that no one in their right mind would ever have planned =
to do?  When you get away with this stuff, it is a lot more fun to think =
of yourself as an ace instead of the idiot you manifestly are.

As John Deakin says: be careful up there!