The truth about TransAsia Airways Flight GE235 that crashed into the Keelung River in Taipei on Feb. 4 was revealed this week thanks to the black box and other evidence. At the time of the crash, many hailed the pilot as a hero and even suggested that he be included in the Martyrs’ Shrine. All these conjectures were the result of subjective fantasy. Taiwanese and Taiwan’s media should be more rational: Evidence is the final arbiter.
The crash set off a debate regarding whether Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) should be relocated. There is no simple answer to that question, but things might become clearer after the completion of Taipei’s MRT metropolitan railway system to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport. Before that happens, Taipei residents might have to continue to worry about airplanes. After all, there have been many examples of airplanes crashing into buildings, not to mention the noise and air pollution created by aircraft.
According to data on flight security incidents during the past 60 years, 53 percent of all airplane crashes have been due to pilot error, which includes a variety of errors: pure pilot error (32 percent), pilot error related to the weather (16 percent) and pilot error related to mechanical problems (5 percent). Apart from pilot error, 6 percent of the incidents were caused by human error by people other than pilots — air traffic controllers, improper goods storage, impure fuel, inappropriate maintenance — 12 percent were caused by climate factors, 20 percent by mechanical error, 8 percent by destruction — bombs, being shot down, hijackings — and 1 percent were caused by other factors.
Everyone is paying attention to flight safety and the aviation industry is placing great importance on this issue. No one wants a security record like TransAsia Airways and the competent authority must take charge of supervision and instruction. Even in the case of pilot error, it is still necessary to identify the failing link in systemic and security culture. The achievements of modern flight safety can be credited to efforts to improve system and safety transparency.
The aviation industry and aircraft designers have learned that errors always occur when people are involved. This is why it is recognized that pilot error is unavoidable and why it is part of the system to put pilots through regular tests and evaluations, have health checks, see to it that they are not overworked and to prevent error by placing importance on standard operating procedures and complete automation. In other words, airplane crashes are a test of systemic error rather than human error. Looking at the Singapore Airlines (SIA) Flight SQ006 crash at what was then CKS International Airport in Taoyuan in 2000, the District Prosecutors’ Office did not charge the three crew members and the International Federation of Airline Pilot Associations said that if the crew members were charged, they would call on all members to refuse to fly in Taiwanese airspace. This shows that this flight safety culture is deeply ingrained.
Modern flight safety was not created overnight. Error prevention thinking and design control achievements directed by the US’ aviation industry over many years have resulted in many flight safety achievements. Although there is a never-ending stream of flight incidents and although news about plane crashes around the world always end up on the front page, people continue to travel by plane because there is an extremely low risk that a plane crash will occur. While it is not 100 percent safe to travel by plane, generally flights are safe and there is less risk involved in traveling by airplane than by car.
Unfortunately, medical safety and flight safety both involve the public interest, but Taiwan still lacks a medical compensation system. A trial birth accident compensation plan has already been in place for two years and it has produced good results and can be expected to continue. It is a miniature version of regulations for provision of no fault compensation in case of medical accidents, although both continue to focus on assigning fault. Taiwanese politicians still fail to comprehend the advantages of the no fault medical compensation system that has been in place in Sweden and Denmark for almost 40 years. This is a matter of concepts. We like to assign blame, but the no fault system makes Swedish doctors admit to their mistakes and 80 percent of all medical negligence compensation is applied for by doctors assisting patients.
By comparison, a culture that haggles over whether or not negligence is involved and over revenge and blame makes doctors and hospitals cover up what they can and that makes it difficult to clear up the causes of the approximately 80,000 cases of medical harm that occur every year. The result is that doctors and hospitals do not get a chance to learn from the mistakes of others or from systemic mistakes in order to improve. Even more unfair and regrettable is that the silent victims, in the cases that do not go to court, do not get any compensation at all.
Chiang Sheng is an attending physician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Mackay Memorial Hospital.
Translated by Perry Svensson
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