Posts about: "DEI" [Posts: 13 Page: 1 of 1]¶

The coverage of this that I've seen suggests that the family is concerned that identifying that crew member, apparently a female pilot, would expose them to hatred and threats ignited by the president's anti-DEI remarks. That seems to me to be a reasonable concern.

That mid airs happen, there is data, true
That there is adequate data of American airlines running into military helicopters in the terminal area? We have one data point. That is an exception event. The near misses, there is more data, but apparently not enough to get anyone's attention before a bad day out occurred (whether DEI dependent or not)

The intent of a safety system is to tend towards improved safety. To do so, it needs data to make rational assessments, and we have a system today that is based on responses to exceptions, and often responses to exceptions that arose due to responses to other exceptions, etc. We have a stack of bandaids that are our rules and regs, and they act as soporifics, great if you are suffering from insomnia.

As a system, it sucks.


The following article may not have a direct connection to the Collision being discussed but it certainly does mention issues that bear on the general environment under which the aircraft were operating and on how ATC capability might not have had assets that would have assisted in enhancing safety. It does mention DEI, the efforts to privatize the ATC function in the United States to a system similar to those in the UK and Europe and provides some background to why that has not happened. What it does point to is the question of if the US ATC system is adequate to today's needs of the Aviation Industry within the United States.

https://www.city-journal.org/article...control?skip=1

That was from the usual suspects that have been saying anything related to government is evil since forever

IMHO This is an unbelievably well informed piece.

Several contributors earlier in this thread have pointed out that there's a conflict between the accident stats in commercial aviation in the USA (very enviable), and critical observations about the character of ATC interactions over here. They conclude that ATC and pilots are deploying their superior skills and 'can do' mentality to paper over the cracks in the system.

It would take an almost inconceivable act of collective insight and collective political will to absorb and internalise that assessment. We can but hope, but if it's going to start anywhere, it's articles like this.

Ah. I hoped I wouldn't have to spell this out explicitly, not least because the moderators may well take the view that this is straying into political territory. The very best thing about this article is that it is artfully cloaked in terminology that might entice the incumbent powers to engage.

It does. I've been visiting a friend in Reston for 30 years and one day, quite recently, Metro was just "there."
Avoiding the partisan finger-pointing, I'm going to generally agree here.

We all know there are issues with American ATC. But primarily, they are ordinary problems that don't need radical solutions. The solutions are generally more resources and more rigorous enforcement.

* One of my go-to complaints: Pilots not disciplined for erasing or overwriting CVRs following runway incursions and near misses. No blowback for aircrews refusing to meet with NTSB following incursions/near misses. I mentioned this earlier; hopefully 25 hr recorders will fix the overwrite part of this. Ideally the "erase" button would be removed in all cockpits where it still remains. I understand aircrews wanting to erase their CVRs and avoid meetings with investigators after doing something careless (or straight up idiotic) with a plane full of people, but, folks, how can coming to Jesus *not* be part of the job? We are blessed to live in a country where fatal transportation accidents are not presumed to be criminal (unlike most every other non-Commonwealth nation), and aircrews hardly ever have personal liability for damages. Yes a career might take a hit. That's careers for ya.
* Runway incursions in general: Over 1k per year for many years ... we have systems to manage this but they need to be continually funded, resourced, and improved ... HNL, MDW, LAX need to be sorted out aggressively (LAX is no longer the poster child for incursions, good work there, it's HNL now)
* See-and-avoid: It works as well as it does because of the very high standard of air"person"ship prevalent in the US, but it is absolutely guaranteed that see-and-avoid is insufficient to avoid midair collisions, as it is impossible to see all potential collision aircraft even in broad daylight
* Manufacturer quality: Until MCAS I'd have never thought that US manufacturing processes would (once again) become a significant safety risk, but, here we are, with no indication that the trend has been reversed (it's fair to say that there is some promise that there has been a reversal at the top of Boeing management, but effects haven't appeared at this early date)
* ATC hiring: Pay more, hire more, create alternative career structures that allow qualified "old" people in their 30s to start jobs at ATC while giving them a fair framework for retirement

None of this needs "AI" or "satellites" or "complete rework" or "woodchipper" to fix. It just needs money and constant re-commitment to safety, and commitment to compromising in favor of safety when a decision of "revenue vs safety" arises. Honestly I think it's mostly about money. Perhaps 99% about money. Perhaps 100%.

Well, isn't that razor-sharp, incisive, accident cause analysis?

1. So if an "intolerable risk" is identified by the NTSB Chair, your view is that nonethless the pilot flying the helicopter necessarily was incompetent when that risk finally reached occurrence? The Swiss Cheese model requires accounting for all the holes in the block first of all existing somewhere, and then enough of them lining up - but not necessarily all of the holes lining up. The pilot might have been fully competent and might not have been - but the intolerable risk present in the airspace design makes it necessary to know a lot more relevant facts in the record to supoort a logical conclusion.

Or perhaps you'll next assert that Chair Homendy is just covering for DEI.

2. Any second-year associate in a firm of more than three lawyers who has done nothing more than watch five depositions would raiload your argument to the extent it is based on the NYT's twisting of the summary of the CVR about turning left. Directive? Among other things, if the pilot flying was being "directed" then to the extent there is responsibility, it has to be mutual.

3. Whenever I read pieces like the one published in the NYT I wonder if one of the reporters has a close friend working on one of the lawsuits and is just trying to shape public opinion. Even if that speculation is merely a cheap shot, I didn't read anything in the piece which changed the level of "complexity" of the accident. Perhaps it was deeply hidden and required more reading between the lines. Regardless, its publication is a sorry excuse to jump far ahead of the investigations.

The gender involving crews in accidents and incidents. It\x92s not proportionally with actual numbers. Delta or its subsidiary has had two minor and one major accident in the last 2 years. All three involved female crew members. Southwest has had at least two serious incidents in the last six months with the same. United has had a similar issue including a severe tailstrike at EWR. Some of the best pilots I flew with were female. The best CA I ever flew with was female. There does however seem to be more of a pass for training issues based on gender. Training to proficiency is not a good safety concept. There needs to be a reasonable standard for how much extra instruction will be provided before someone is asked to leave. I actually believe DEI is a worthy concept but not if you lower standards.

What's your source/citation? Or is it just based on the incidents involving women that for some psychological reason you happen to remember more than incidents involving men?

I mean, here's something I've read that cites actual studies on the matter, not anecdotes.
https://www.newsweek.com/do-women-pi...re-men-1973481

So, you are going to attempt to attach a reason to it?

As someone with a Masters in Stats, I cannot even begin to tell you how bad this analysis is, but let me start

It has issues with sample size, it has issues with cherry picking data, it has issues with definitions, it doesn't have a clear hypotheses, it doesn't reference a causal inference method, and I could go on.

As a general rule if you do not understand the following terms p-hacking, bayesian inference, confounding effects, experimental power, I could go on, and have not actually done statistics at a masters level you have no business posting #### like this.

People here and DEI frothers everywhere need to be asking one question:

If this is about one pilot and one operation, and about a single error 15 seconds before a collision on Route 4, why does Route 5 remain almost completely shut down , and not by the FAA?

I have 100% visual and audible on every Route 5 movement from The Lair, even if I'm not at my desk. Seen two operations since the accident.

I suspect that the answer is this: someone reporting to DoD leadership, not Army aviation, came in, took one look at the ops and ops standards, screamed WHISKEY THE ALFA FOXTROT and observed that it was sheer blind luck the accident hadn't happened earlier, and possibly on the 15 approach with a dozen or so teenage soccer players added to the casualty list.