Yesterday, there was a terrible accident that happened outside of a remote area in a Russian
town of Smolensk. This accident killed the Polish President, Foreign Minister & many other
cabinet officials. The airplane involved a Russian build Tu-154 which is an old plane that don't
have a good safety record. Although all the facts are not out yet on this accident. What is
known is that the plane was attempting to land in thick fog. The flight made two attempts. The
air traffic controllers told them to abandon the approach & the crew apparently try to
continue. In my opinion, one thing that may have contributed to this accident is a term we
use in aviation called "get home itis". Basically, what it means is that sometimes pilots
are under great pressure to arrive at their destination that they sometimes ignore their
basic instinct that keeps them safe. History has shown that when a flight crew miss
multiple approaches at the airport theres a greater chance of a lapse of good
judgement. This "get home itis" phenomenon leads to a lot of accidents involving recreational &
novice pilots who don't yet have the experience & discipline to know when to call it quits
,and go to another airport. Sometimes experienced pilots fall victim to this phenomenon too.
Experienced pilots like corporate pilots & some military pilots often fly high profile vips.
What happens is sometimes the corporate CEO, or executives place pressure on these
pilots to get them to their destination for board meeting,or meeting clients.
Sometimes the pilots put the pressure on themselves because you always want to
please the boss & get them to their destination. It becomes an inconvenience for your boss to have
to land at another airport & arrange ground transportation, lodging etc. There was a high
profile accident like this in 1996 when a military vip transport flying the Commerce Secretary
Ron Brown of the Clinton Administration when it hit a mountain trying to land in bad weather at
an airport with questionable safety standards in war torn Bosnia. Getting back to the
Polish accident, the pilot of that jet had enormous pressure to land. He was taking the
President of Poland ,their military joint chief, foreign minister & many other high profile
vips to commemorate the massacre of a Polish soldiers that was executed by Soviets troops
during World War Two. This event is a famous event in Polish History. Therefore, the pilots
were probably under intense pressure to arrive on time. History has shown when you are under
that kind of pressure it's not uncommon to lose lapse of good judgement. How do this phenomenon
compare to the airline industry? In my opinion it doesn't happen as much with the airlines
because airline pilots don't have that kind of intense pressure. The regulations for airlines
are black & white. For example, airlines are quick to cancel flights if the captain &
dispatcher conclude that a flight can't get in to their destination. They don't want to
waste fuel. Also, the airlines don't want the crew on any unnecessary crew rest restrictions
because they been fatigued for being on duty for so long.