It is said every regulation and rule governing aviation is the result of an accident or incident. True or not, there is certainly some truth to the idea that the aviation industry benefits from studying past accidents and incidents.

Military accident and incident data is classified. Obviously, there are plenty of occurances that should be classified in the interest of national security, but it seems to me that keeping each and every accident and incident classified is irresponsible from an aviation safety standpoint.

For example, if a C-9 botched an approach to, say, Omaha, and the accident was a direct result of a previously unforeseen oversight or chain of events, what harm could possibly result from the dissemination of the accident information? Would releasing that information not benefit aviation and possibly (or even likely) prevent a repeat of the accident, potentially saving lives?

Again, I understand the importance of keeping certain accidents/incidents under wraps indefinitely, but it seems very irresponsible to hide the lessons that could be learned from the rest of them.

Am I way off base here?




2H4