[Rhodes22-list] Bad Tack

[Bill Effros]

Brad,

In airplane crashes the operators always call it pilot error and the 
union always looks for mechanical problems.  What's your take?

Bill Effros

Brad Haslett wrote:
> Got a phone call today from the dealer who sold us our new dump truck in
> Gulfport about a plane crash.  The dealer was flying two customers to the
> Mayo Clinic but the Citation Jet landed in Cresco, Iowa, ran off the 
> runway,
> killed the pilots, and seriousily injured the two passengers.  As 
> usual, the
> news agencies don't know squat about aviation or the accident, but 
> write the
> story as if they were experts. I can only guess that if they're so FOS 
> about
> airplanes, they are probably FOS about everything else they
> cover. Disgusting! Anyway, while researching that, I came across several
> news accounts of the cruise line incident that happened last week.  
> Here is
> an explanation that seems on the surface to make the most sense. 
> Sounds like
> it was a tack gone bad.
>
> Brad
>
> -------------------------------
>
>   WESH.COM I-Team: Cruise Ship's List Caused By Human Error
> Jul 21,2006 00:00 by WESH.COM
> *ORLANDO, Fla. -- *WESH 2 News has learned the accident involving a 
> Princess
> Cruise ship was due to human error, not a mechanical malfunction.
>
> Two hundred and forty passengers were hurt when the Crown Princess 
> listed in
> the open sea off the Brevard County coast.
>
> Two investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and 
> two more
> from the U.S. Coast Guard are riding along on the bridge of the Crown
> Princess as it heads back to its home port in New York.
>
> They're running final tests on the automatic pilot system, but a high 
> level
> source has told the WESH 2 I-Team that human error, not the automatic 
> pilot,
> caused the accident.
>
> A series of still pictures aboard the Crown Princess on Tuesday afternoon
> showed the chaos and confusion on what was supposed to be the last leg 
> of a
> pleasure cruise. The ship, 11 miles out in the Atlantic, tilted 
> sharply to
> the port side.
>
> Federal investigators boarded the ship, and almost immediately figured 
> out
> what happened. It wasn't a computer glitch. It wasn't a mechanical 
> problem.
>
> A high-level source, who asked not to be identified for fear of losing 
> his
> or her job, told the WESH 2 I-Team it was simple human error.
>
> "The public needs to know. The ship is safe. There is nothing wrong 
> with the
> automatic pilot system. It was human error. They made a mistake. Mistakes
> happen," the source said.
>
> Here's how our source explains what happened.
>
> After clearing Port Canaveral, the captain set the ship's automatic 
> pilot to
> head to New York. He then left the cruise line's bridge. All standard and
> appropriate procedure.
>
> As the automatic pilot found its course back to New York, it started 
> making
> a left turn when the person in charge on the bridge -- a junior 
> officer --
> noticed the ship's automatic pilot needle was far to the left.
>
> Our source goes on to tell us that the junior officer "panicked," then 
> took
> the ship out of automatic pilot thinking the meter was showing that 
> the ship
> was turning too sharply to one side.
>
> But instead of turning the Crown Princess back to the right, the junior
> officer accidentally kept the ship in an even sharper left hand turn --
> almost like over-correcting in a car.
>
> This caused the massive 113,000-ton cruise ship to list severely, 
> tumbling
> passengers, pool water and everything else on board into chaos...
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