Ethics in aviation, why is it important?

 

Aviation is a wonderful and passionate field. However, it demands of a high level of responsibility and high standards in order to achieve a safe operation. A pilot for example, is responsible from the lives of hundreds of people sited behind him or her. Thus, any mistake could result in a catastrophic accident. Same as the aircraft mechanic, if he or she make a mistake, even a small one, the safety of the flight will be compromised. All the other aviation activities require high standards and qualified workforce in order to avoid loss of human lives and expensive damages.

On November 29^th, 2016, an AVRO RJ85 crashed before attempting its approach to Medellin. The cause of the accident was that they ran out of fuel. It is obvious that this is not the first accident due to this cause, however, I wanted to bring it up because there was an appreciable lack of ethics in this case. Long story short, they departed from Santa Cruz, Bolivia with only the trip fuel, so they did not contemplate a minimum reserve fuel and an alternate fuel even tough it is required by regulations. As a result, they were instructed to make an unforeseen holding and they used up all the fuel available and the crashed. The investigation revealed that the flight crew and the dispatch officers knew about the inappropriate flight planning, however they decided to conduct the flight anyways just because economic interests. Another important aspect of this accident is that they never declared an emergency despite their had low fuel quantity. This was probably because they knew that implies fines and even investigation from the authorities due to the poor flight planning.

In conclusion, If the captain of that flight had actuated with ethics, he would not have conducted the flight at the first place, however, if when airborne the pilot had actuated with ethics, they would have declared the emergency and they would have been able to land. Unfortunately, that day 71 people lost their lives and other 6 people suffered major injuries. This is why as aviation professionals we must contribute to a safe operation and this is achieve doing the right thing.

Reference: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://reports.aviation-safety.net/2016/20161128-0_RJ85_CP-2933.pdf