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Brent,
Very Good Advice. It should be re-read by all
Lancair owners, builders and pilots.
dave
----- Original Message -----
Sent: 03/18/2010 8:04 PM
Subject: [LML] Re: More on Ed Smith's
accident
There is a LOT we can learn from this accident,
including:
1) The press reports everything but the facts. I have been
peripherally involved with or consulted to the NTSB on several Lancair
accidents. I was also the only eyewitness to one and I can say with absolute
certainty that however the press describes what happened is NOT what actually
happened.
2) People love to talk to the press regardless of there level
of ignorance. (How bad at your job do you have to be to be a former
Government employee?)
3) Emergency procedures are important. Practice
them.
4) Accidents happen. Jogging with some tunes one minute and the
next "Hello St. Peter". If you gotta go, it is not a bad way. It can
happen to you. Get your life in order.
5) This event is news worthy
ONLY due to its extreme rarity. 5000 pedestrians a year are killed by cars
(one every 105 minutes). In the time it has taken a Lancair, any Lancair, to
kill someone on the ground there have been 15,000 pedestrian deaths by car.
Where is the outrage?
6) If you are involved in an accident KEEP YOUR
MOUTH SHUT. If you say nothing then there is nothing to distort. Your brain
chemistry will be out of whack due to the shock of the accident and you may
feel an overwhelming urge to explain what happened. DON'T! I do not know
if the pilot actually said "I killed someone" but now it is written down
forever. He may become the example prosecution for a DA facing a tough
election. The opening salvo in the manslaughter trial will be his excited
utterance of a confession. If he dodges a criminal trial, a civil trial is a
virtual certainty. I pray for the poor SOB who tightened and wired the prop
bolts.
Our legal system is not about justice of fairness, it is about
who can take the blame, who can pay.
The difference between lawyers
and buzzards is that lawyers scavenge the survivors. But the only thing a
lawyer respects is another lawyer so........
Take a moment and imagine
that this tragedy has just happened to you. What would you need immediately?
Your second call would probably be to your lawyer. Do you have one? "Then"
will not be the time to be thumbing through the yellow pages. Interview and
select an attorney now. Have is number handy.
Preparing for an
accident should not end at "All passengers safely exited the airframe". Like
dropping a rock in a pond, most of what happens because of an accident happens
after the smoke has settled.
Regards
Brent
Regan
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