HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE - Ships and Planes and Managers who don’t know!

HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE

Ships and Planes and Managers who don’t know!

Have you ever wondered if a pilot in command can learn safety lessons from a ship's captain? The answer is unreservedly yes because the similarities between the two professions are remarkable. Both are in command. Both are ultimately responsible for the safety of their vessel, their crew, and their passengers. And strangely enough in many cases they are working for people who are not experts in their profession. One of the requirements of a Safety Management System (SMS) is to define an accountable executive, he who controls the purse strings. How many pilots are working for pilots? For that matter, how many sea captains are working for sea captains? In both cases not many.

The historical lesson we can take from previous accidents in either field, whether in the air or on the sea, cannot be more clearly highlighted than by a study of the Herald of Free Enterprise Disaster. This was a roll-on roll-off ferry that capsized on 6 March 1987 causing the deaths of some 188

Figure 1 Herald of Free Enterprise 

persons because it left port with the bow doors open.  This was, as are many transportation accidents, a human error accident. The report into this accident (UK Department of Transport MV Herald of Free Enterprise Report of Court No. 8074, MV Herald of Free Enterprise) said, “At first sight the faults which led to this disaster with the aforesaid errors of omission on part of the master, the chief officer, and the assistant boatswain…" (Report paragraph 14.1) As usual, this is not the whole picture. Somewhat controversial for the time, the report's authors created somewhat of a precedent of adding the cause, "Failure of Management", to the list of causes. The most damning piece of the report is, "…all concerned in management, from the members of the board of directors down to the junior superintendents, were guilty of fault in that all must be regarded as sharing responsibility for the failure of management. From top to bottom the body corporate was infected with the disease of sloppiness."

To best illustrate this failure of management the report examined in detail the consideration that had been given, at the request of the sea captains, to fitting an indicator system to show whether the bow doors were open or closed. The captain's concerns were repeatedly documented and yet rejected for the reasons of costs or even trivial, sarcastic, and frankly incredible statements such as, “do not we pay somebody to close the doors?" Another management failure was the lack of clear orders for the crews and their officers. In short, nobody was actually ordered to close the doors. There was evidence that on many occasions the ships had been overloaded, that they sailed incorrectly ballasted and therefore unstable, and that these shortcomings had been drawn to the attention of management on many occasions by the captains.

So who were these captains working for? The report states, "… those charged with the management of the company's fleet were not qualified to deal with many nautical matters and were unwilling to listen to their masters, who were well qualified." Does this sound familiar to many a pilot? How many pilots work for management qualified to deal with aviation matters? Are not many aviation companies run by those with degrees in business, or accountancy, or almost anything except aviation? Surely this must lead to the same frustrations the ferry captains must have felt at the lack of action on serious concerns and other safety issues they had raised with management?

So is there a possible way to solve the issue of specialists working for layman? This whole story of the Herald of Free Enterprise was actually a pivotal point in the history of safety management. The introduction of safety management systems to the transportation industry in particular has many attractive features. Perhaps the most important has already been mentioned; the identification of the accountable executive. This defines, perhaps for the first time, the desk upon which Harry S Truman's sign, “the Buck Stops Here,” must sit. Part of the measure of a safety culture is the attitudes and commitment of management toward safety; having committed to adopting SMS that attitude is by design subject to change.

So if we are truly to learn from this tragedy management must listen to those who are experts in their appropriate field, react to hazards identified by their experts, and prove that they really are committed to safety by their actions not by their words. Pilots can learn from this too, for they are in the best position to find hazards both in the air and on the ground. They only have themselves to blame if they do not report these hazards.

So has your organization recently adopted SMS? Have you had your Herald of Free Enterprise moment? Have you noticed your management responding more positively to your concerns than before?

Today is Memorial Day in the USA.

On Memorial day here in the USA we remember the sacrifice of those who served. Remembrance Day in the UK is the same. We were wondering the other day when the tradition of wearing a poppy began so googled it!

Here's the story about Remembrance poppy

Going to personal remembrances, I often think of both my parents on these two days. Both were veterans of WWII and indeed met because of that war. Dad was US Navy, and Mom was in the British WRENS.

Here is a photograph of Dad and me looking at the Sea King helicopter at RAF Coltishall.

Thank you all servicemen and women of both countries who served.

Prince William takes new job! Congratulations.

His Royal Highness, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge KG KT ADC(P) begins a new job at East Anglian Air Ambulance, according to reports. This is certainly a natural progression for a former RAF Search and Rescue pilot. I wish him great success in the new job, and can assure him that it can be just as rewarding as SAR.

Have a look at this news item: International Business Times 

Acapella, one of the best forms of music, Sam Robson.

Greetings, few followers.

So I use Facebook, I subscribe to some pages, I get daily emails from favorite websites, and sometimes a gem appears.

Godvine hit me with an acapella arrangement of "How Great Thou Art" by Sam Robson.

So I listened and listened, and am absolutely gobsmacked by it all. (There's a British bit of slang for you!)

So if you'd like to support this young British arranger, buy his digital album here.

History - a fascinating subject.

If you have an inquisitive mind, you may enjoy reading about history. Perhaps we simply do not learn from our mistakes, but if we read about the past, and read with a critical viewpoint refusing to allow progressive authors to rewrite history, then perhaps we can learn.

One of my favorite TV channels is the History Channel.

For example, Today in History produces this list, you may click on the links to view the articles.

This Week in History, Sep 22 - Sep 28

Sep 22, 1862

Lincoln issues Emancipation Proclamation

Sep 23, 1875

Billy the Kid arrested for first time

Sep 24, 1789

The First Supreme Court

Sep 25, 1957

Central High School integrated

Sep 26, 1960

First Kennedy-Nixon debate

Sep 27, 1779

John Adams appointed to negotiate peace terms with British

Sep 28, 1941

Ted Williams becomes last player to hit .400

APP NET - a somewhat different alternative to TWITTER

Greetings.

Not posted in the blog for a while, I plead pressure of work, moving home, etc.

Just watched a ScreenCastOnline podcast about APP.NET. It's a new alternative to TWITTER, with the following text in their "About" page.

App.net is an ad-free, subscription-based social feed and API. App.net aims to be the backbone of the social web through infrastructure that developers can use to build applications and that members can use for meaningful interactions. App.net launched in August of 2012. It's owned and operated by Mixed Media Labs, founded by CEO Dalton Caldwell and CTO Bryan Berg.

So it emphasizes development of new applications, and thus is somewhat specialized. However, the applications that currently are listed are high quality. Why do I like the service? Simply because the applications I have tried are of a high quality, which makes life much easier than, say, browsing the thousands and thousands of poor quality apps on the Apple app store.

Watch the ScreenCastOnline podcast about it here. 

They have a free service, and two levels of paid service! Join in and look for me @CaptainKirk1950

Reflections on Conesus Lake

Reflections on Conesus Lake

John Kirk 

Introduction

This essay is my personal reflections on the “nearly infinite messages waiting to be interpreted on the human landscape.” Expressed in the terms of the five themes of geography; location, human environment, region, place, and movement, I have changed the order of those themes if only because I wanted to conclude that this is indeed a special place in which to live.

I live on Conesus Lake, the westernmost of the 11 Finger Lakes. Not being gifted with the ability to walk on water; I shall restrict my stroll through this area to a virtual walking tour. Imagine, if you will, a 6 1/2  mile view from the front of our home looking north. To the left and right are 
steeply sloped hills, tree covered, and clearly the result of ice age glaciers.

LOCATION

As we head south down the West Lake Road (state route 256) we come to a highly significant place from the time of the Revolutionary war. In 1779 Gen. Washington authorized a campaign led by Maj. Gen. John Sullivan and Brig. Gen. James Clinton against loyalists and the formations of the Iroquois who had sided with the British. When the Revolutionary war began both sides sought the allegiance or at least their neutrality. The nations were divided, and most Mohawks, Cayugas, Onandagas, and Senecas chose the British side. The Oneidas and Tuscaroras sided with the Americans. In 1777 loyalists and their Iroquois allies raided American settlements in the region. At that time Gen. Washington had not allocated many Continental Army troops to the region and had told the frontier settlements to use local militia for their own defense. However, by June 10, 1778 the Continental Congress concluded that a major Indian war was in the offing. The Board of War authorized an expedition to punish the local Iroquois, although the campaign did not really begin until the following year.

The orders of George Washington to Gen. John Sullivan stated in part, "…it will be essential to ruin their crops now in the ground and prevent their planting more." In other words they were authorized to carry out a scorched earth policy.

Groveland, the township in which I reside, marks the furthest point reached by this expedition. The last significant event during this campaign occurred near here and is known as the ambuscade, or the Groveland Ambush. As a child of the 50s I remember well being influenced by hearing about this ambush, the capture and torture of two men, during my school days. At the young age of six or seven I had been at the time convinced of the savagery of the uncivilized Indians; somewhat justifying their subjugation at the hands of American soldiers. Not only that, but the cowboys and indians kind of movies and TV shows of the day reinforced that view.

How things change! Nowadays I believe most people realize that there was wrong doings on both sides, Native American and European. Savagery, brutality, and injustice were not the exclusive purview of either side. The particularly gruesome events of this place may well have influenced a generation, but it is to be hoped that future generations will learn from our mistakes.

HUMAN ENVIRONMENT

Continuing our stroll, it is certainly a noteworthy that dwellings on the lakeshore are packed in tightly. Clearly a popular place to live, house values are some 50 to 100% higher than equivalent houses elsewhere. Not only that, but the unfairness of the taxation system in New York State means that our taxes for waterfront properties are as much as three times higher than elsewhere.

Considering the impact that human beings have had upon this lake it is perhaps surprising that there still is so much wildlife. We have seen fish jumping, northern pike and bass in particular; deer, and heard the other raucous screech of belted Kingfishers. Here near Cottonwood point, we have a flock of turkey vultures over 25 strong, which pester our pack of three Shetland sheepdogs. The lake freezes in winter, usually, and we have seen wildlife making use of the ice. Our local bald eagle, for instance, has been seen devouring fish on the ice. A coyote crossed the lake two winters ago. A neighbor some 2 miles to the east reports having seen a black bear this time last year. In the wee small hours of the night you can see dear with their young making their way to the lake's edge to drink water.

MOVEMENT

When considering the geographical principle of movement, unlike the Great Lakes to the north and west, the Finger Lakes do not provide any means of transportation. We do not ship iron ore to steel mills, grain from wheat lands of America, or meat products from the meatpackers via these lakes. However, as is typical with most of valleys throughout the world both sides of the lakes provide a convenient place to have roads. None of these roads are considered to be major routes, however. Movement also includes the ideas that are transported from a region or area. The hill at Cumorah, about 20 miles northeast of here, is the birthplace of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This region is also credited with the second great awakening. The American Red Cross began only 12 miles south of here in Dansville New York.

The regional phenomena associated with this area are mainly to do with the geology. The 11 lakes said to be the Finger Lakes originated as a series of northward flowing streams. About 2 million years ago the glaciers of the Laurentide ice sheet flowed down from the Hudson Bay area. These Pleistocene glaciations widened and deepened the river valleys. The terminal moraine left behind by the receding ice acted as dams allowing the lakes to form. The richness of the soil left behind after the ice receded created rich agricultural land. Indeed record breaking yields of corn and other crops have been reported in some areas here. In addition, the drainage of the slopes, and the effect of lake effect retention of summer's warmth in the winter and the winter's cold in the spring, the Finger Lakes region supports New York's largest wine producing region. Conesus remains the home of the oldest producer of pure grape sacramental wine in the Western Hemisphere.

Looking at the architecture of the region particularly the western half, the Phelps and Gorham purchase of 1790, many houses reflect federal and Greek revival periods of architecture. Settlement of the area was rapid post 1790, predominantly from New England and from a lesser extent from Pennsylvania.

PLACE

As a pilot, I feel particularly at home being so close to Hammondsport, the home of aviation pioneer Glenn Curtis. Imagine my distress at being called to an aircraft crash at Penn Yan of a Curtis replica aircraft. The pilot, Jim Poel, was seriously injured, yet survived through the efforts of the flight nurse and flight medic on scene and the huge team of very dedicated medical folks at Strong Memorial Hospital at the University of Rochester. Sadly, Jim passed away some eight months later while recuperating in Florida. A fund raising event was held here with a fly-in of about ten floatplanes to the North Shore of the lake.

As a worldwide traveler I had never heard of the Finger Lakes. It is perhaps a well-kept secret. Many people regionally know about the Adirondacks, or the Thousand Islands, or the attractions of Niagara Falls; but the Finger Lakes? Perhaps not! People from outside of this area may well think of New York City and the bright lights of Manhattan when we mentioned New York State, but Western New York has its own characteristics, history, geography, geology, and indeed beauty. This is a special place.