“God
grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change
the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.”
--Reinhold
Niebuhr
My virtual mailbox is filled daily with comments on the AF447 crash, from one very concerned individual. Some of what he shares is accurate, but most is based on interpretation and not fact. I know why he writes. The power of anger and the sadness for the lives lost... that did not have to die... overwhelms him and a large group of people in Europe, while the rest of the world has forgotten and continue on with life as usual. Maybe we choose not to dwell on the past. But when the past haunts you there is no moving forward unless you find closure. Many people cannot find closure.
The bottom line is that the incident that happened with AF447 losing their data is not unlike anything that hasn't happened before. Yes, this particular system failure has occurred many times at numerous airlines, and airplanes. The only difference with this accident was the pilot's reaction to the failure.
But when I receive emails that state, "Airbus systems are evil and are out to annihilate aviators as their
computers possess the ability to take human life because we don't
honestly understand what they're really doing, especially when they
throw pilots a curve ball when they shut down and toss control of the
aircraft back at the crew like they did with Air France 447!" ... it reminds me of the serenity prayer.
We must know he difference and change what we can. We have the power to change the training requirements. We cannot stop aircraft manufactures from building automated planes. This is the future. We cannot stop equipment from breaking, this is life. But we can take control of the human side of the equation. Each pilot can work to be the best they can. We can create awareness when safety issues arise. We can learn from the past and make sure that accidents like this never happen again. We can create awareness. Through awareness will come the change we need.
What can you do to make a difference? When an accident happens and you want a resolution and someone held responsible and it just isn't happening, how do you move forward? How can you create awareness? I wrote a novel Flight For Control, and working on Flight For Safety. The outline is complete. Tomorrow the work starts and each day I will report my progress. The sequel is taking the runway. This is my effort in helping change the world... one word at a time.
Enjoy the Journey!
XOX Karlene
Fantastic! Is this what you'll be workshopping if you get to go to Hawaii?
ReplyDeleteYes... I will. But tomorrow has already filled up. I'm back to my 0330 wake up call to write.
DeleteThis is an important thing you're pointing out - we can't change everything. We have to know our limitations and act accordingly.
ReplyDeleteThe power of your words should never be underestimated!
Thank you Cecilie. I do believe sometimes we get so frustrated when we know what we want. But we can't do it all, and yes... know our limitations.
DeleteThe power of all our words should never be underestimated.
Thank you for the comment!
And I have no doubt you will indeed change things. I'm so inspired by this.
ReplyDeleteOne day at a time Heather. Some things we can't change now...but some just take time. You will be where you need to be, before you know it. Thank you so much for your comment!
DeleteGreat post, Karlene. Your philosophy should be the basis of very safety system in an airline. Look forward to reading your book.
ReplyDeleteThank you Helene. As one who tries to fix everything, we must focus on what we can, and not allow the other to destroy us. Looking forward to you reading my book too. :)
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