The fact that it had AA on the tail is of little concern to most of us -
it would be of more concern if they were doing it with regularity ....
it will certainly be of importance to AA and it may be of importance if
they find generic ingredients for the rest of us. What is important is
to recognise that these were trained professionals who got into a
situation that others could easily get into.
Experience is recognising the same mistake the next time you make it. We
gain cheap, easy, risk-free experience by reading of other people's
unfortunate experiences and from that we can perhaps recognise the
accident chain as it starts to form the next time around.
Somebody once pointed out cynically that it took a big accident to get
any significant reform in safety issues.
The Cali accident may well be a 'classic' in focussing attention on the
Human / FMS relationship in a fast moving environment just as KLM / Pan
Am woke everybody up to HF in 1977.
1996 has been a poor year as far as statistics are concerned but it has
provided some rich examples from which we will all (hopefully) be able
to draw on for the future - management, design engineer, administrator,
aircrew and line maintenance alike.