Illusion of airline safety systems

This is a link to an excellent article, Illusions of Safety, published yesterday by the Royal Aeronautical Society. It’s written by Dr Rob Hunter, Head of Flight Safety, British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA). While it is most directly aimed at the safety professionals that regulate and manage airline safety departments, it has interesting reverberations into any personal risk management discussion. Is safety number one? The whole piece is well worth reading, if only to learn about the origin of the phrase ‘you’ve got to draw the line somewhere‘. Some powerful lines include: Some pilots say that they are fearful of reporting … Continue reading Illusion of airline safety systems

The Tao of Landing?

Who know the Tao Te Ching, written around the 6th century BC by the Chinese sage Lao Tsu, contained such good landing advice? (Chapter four, Gia-Fu Feng translation) The Tao is an empty vessel; it is used, but never filled. Oh, unfathomable source of ten thousand things! Blunt the sharpness, Untangle the knot, Soften the glare, Merge with dust. Oh, hidden deep but ever present! I do not know from whence it comes. It is the forefather of the gods.

Allan Lokos on what we control

Allan Lokos is the founder and guiding teacher of the community Meditation Center in New York City, and author of several books on peaceful living. On Christmas day, 2012, Lokos and his wife were in a fiery plane crash in Burma. Many doctors told him he would not survive his injuries. Yet he did. And continued to thrive. That journey is described in his new book Through the Flames.