I would say all of those things are indicative of the mentality that we're criticizing here.
"If something isn't right, someone has to do something."
The joke in aviation is that "the first two strikes are free." In baseball terms, you get one free screwup per flight, and it'll probably be fine. The second strike... you are pushing your luck. On the third strike you're out.
In this case the pilot continuing to fly while not performing well, ranking officer or not, was strike one.
The more proficient pilot not taking the aircraft away from her was strike two.
The controller not offering more clear instructions and the helicopter crew not demanding more clear instructions despite noticing that the airport was very busy was strike three.
Just because the helicopter crew screwed up does not mean that all of those admin types on the ground didn't also make their own three strikes worth of mistakes.
Comments
I would say all of those things are indicative of the mentality that we're criticizing here.
"If something isn't right, someone has to do something."
The joke in aviation is that "the first two strikes are free." In baseball terms, you get one free screwup per flight, and it'll probably be fine. The second strike... you are pushing your luck. On the third strike you're out.
In this case the pilot continuing to fly while not performing well, ranking officer or not, was strike one.
The more proficient pilot not taking the aircraft away from her was strike two.
The controller not offering more clear instructions and the helicopter crew not demanding more clear instructions despite noticing that the airport was very busy was strike three.
Just because the helicopter crew screwed up does not mean that all of those admin types on the ground didn't also make their own three strikes worth of mistakes.