Page 10 - 2018-Issue1
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10  NEWS, NOTES & EVENTS











                               Flight Safety Spotlight




        DON’T PUT YOURSELF IN THE FRAME
























         This article was originally published by the BALPA Flight Safety Department, December 2017


         Don’t put yourself in the frame.
         There’s nothing more impressive than saying to your kids “look here’s a video of Daddy/Mummy landing their
         aeroplane”. This often works quite well with slightly older people as well apparently, but do you know how
         vulnerable you are leaving yourself when you introduce your personal camera into the cockpit? Firstly, you could
         be introducing a flight safety hazard; the Daily Mail reported earlier this year on an incident where 33 passengers
         were injured after a pilot’s personal camera interfered with the controls and caused a rapid descent. Secondly, you
         may be contravening company rules – that won’t be a pleasant phone call.


         Finally, and really importantly, you may find any images you take (or are taken of you) being used against you or
         your colleagues in the event of something going wrong. In a recent fatal accident investigation the police asked
         for all AAIB material to be released to them but a judge opined that nothing could be released as that could prove
         detrimental to future flight safety reporting. Nothing, that is, except for the personal video camera that the pilot
         had installed to film his flying. That’s gold dust to some people.

         Of course, you may find that your “David Bailey/Spielberg” worshiping colleague posts his imagery on social
         media and some eagle-eyed member of the public may just notice something that you appear to have missed. Even
         if nothing is actually amiss this could generate some undesirable attention and remember, these pictures and
         videos will be there forever. So the next time you are tempted to capture the amazing sights that this job exposes
         us to, or your fellow aviator says “it’s OK to take some pictures/take a video isn’t it?” can we suggest that you think
         very carefully about all the possible ramifications. As we begin to see aircraft being delivered from factories with
         cameras fitted as standard we need to make sure any images from the “office” are dealt with in a sensible, legal and
         agreed way, and we need your help to make sure that happens.





         ISSUE 1 | 2018                                                         InterPilot | The Safety and Technical Journal of IFALPA
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