Soren said:
>>>
Am breaking my customary silence to caution against paying any attention to
the Granada Saudi video.
The piece in question is a reconstruction that has very serious flaws. We
will never know what really happened, but what is shown on this video is
speculative, patronizing and an insult to both the crew and the airplane.
Definitely not worth 200 quid.
<<<
While I have nothing to do with the production or distribution of the
video, this shows more of the difficulties we face in making training
resources available.
First, the issue is not whether the video was absolutely factually accurate
but whether it was made to the best standard possible given the available
information and whether it is useful in getting a training point across.
Nothing is perfect.
Second, this obviously shows something that is not best practice (!) and
can cause embarrassment or possibly even lead to litigation. We are
already reaching an awkward bottleneck in some courseware production where
"not best practice" cannot be shown because the legal beancounters worry
about litigation. This is counterproductive and we need to keep
emphasising the message that frank honesty about error is the only possible
safe policy. The report is certainly insulting about the crew,
particularly the ex-pat flight engineer with dyslexia, but at least it
doesn't repeat some of the popular rumours about the reason for that long
ground roll.
Third, and purely out of interest, a "usually reliable source" told me that
he had shown part of the video and transcript to a group which included the
Saudia Deputy Director of Flight Training, who initially thought that the
whole thing was a fabrication. He had to be shown the accident report
produced by the Presidency of Civil Aviation in Jeddah before he'd believe
it. As far as I know, the video was based on the accident report, tower
tapes and available eyewitness accounts. We certainly don't know what
really happened (which is why it's called "The Mystery of Flight 163") but
CRM trainers still tell me it's one of the most useful videos they've got,
hence it's inclusion in the FAA Top 20 list.
As for patronising, try the Fedex "Captain Queeg" preflight brief vignette
8<^)
Regards,
Rick Heybroek
LOFTwork ltd.
(absolutely no connection with Granada TV)