星空传媒

The US aviation industry provides an excellent example, the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). This was set up about 30 years ago to encourage people to report problems, difficulties and anything that might lead to an accident to the authorities. Recognising that admitting to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that you might have made a mistake would seem hazardous, it was decided the system would be managed by NASA.

The FAA also agreed that the filing of a report with NASA concerning an incident or occurrence involving a violation of the regulations would be considered indicative of a constructive attitude. Since such an attitude would tend to prevent future violations, the FAA agreed that neither a civil penalty or licence suspension would be imposed if the violation was 鈥渋nadvertent and not deliberate and did not involve a criminal offence鈥�.

The ASRS report does not prevent the FAA from finding out you broke the rules. An incident will, of course, go on your record, but you will be immune from whatever penalty would otherwise be imposed. And since it was established, the ASRS has received and analysed more that 600,000 reports from pilots, air traffic controllers, maintenance personnel and others.

There is a saying in the aviation world that every regulation is written in someone鈥檚 blood; however, the really important evidence comes from those who nearly died because they can tell their story. This results in reasonable rules being introduced as opposed to knee-jerk reactions from a fatality.

We don鈥檛 just need legislation that seeks to punish when something goes wrong. We need legislation that encourages a change of behaviour and that understands that a near miss (or is it a 鈥榥ear hit鈥�?) is something to learn from. Admitting a problem and dealing with it should surely be encouraged.