Whether it involves a national TV news reporter or simply a friend looking for fast answers, all of us pilots become designated experts when a high profile accident occurs. And we need to recognize some priorities. Today’s news “industry” is extremely competitive, and there is a strong motivation to seek out headlines and quotes that jump off the front page; or the home page of a Web news source. If you can’t grab the readers’ attention, you’re not going to record ‘clicks’ to your stories. And for better or worse, writers are judged, and promoted, by how many people read their stuff. (Present company included.)
As pilots, we are wrapped in a unique culture of safety. That’s good and bad. Good because we subject ourselves, other pilots and our entire industry to constant review. Bad when we are publicly critical of issues that are not readily understood by those not familiar with what it takes to fly a light airplane safely. When we relate a relatively minor lapse in judgment — say, forgetting to close the cowl flaps in cruise (my favorite gaffe), it might sound as though the flight was seconds from a violent, sudden end.
