Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 12:December 2014 | Page 16

help avoid a similar situation in the
future. In addition, by writing down a
description of the event you make sure
that later on you will not incorrectly
remember what happened. Finally, I
perceive reporting an accident or incident to be part of every pilot’s responsibility to our community, to assure that
others benefit from mistakes made, and
do not have to repeat them.”
What kinds of accidents should be
reported? How about “incidents”?
And who should be filing reports?

What exactly is an accident, and
what is an incident? Frank provides
some clarification, although not an official definition: “In both accidents and
incidents, a sequence of events led to a
dangerous situation. The difference is
that in the former there are losses (i.e.,
injuries or damages), whereas in the
latter someone got lucky and walked
away unscratched.”
The committee encourages reports from anybody who witnessed or
participated in either an incident or an
accident. Instructors must report their
students’ incidents as well as accidents.
If it could have been worse but wasn’t,
they’d like to hear about it. The hope is
that eventually reporting will become a
regular event when something adverse
happens; patterns—or surprises—revealed through reporting can be useful
in guiding the development of best
practices in USHPA’s training and
education process.
Mitch suggests, “One way to decide
whether or not to report is to ask yourself, ‘Did I do (or witness) something
that caught me by surprise and led
to (or almost led to) an injury to me
or others?’ If the answer is yes, then
your fellow pilots might learn from
it. Multiple reports provide multiple
perspectives on the same accident, and
are welcome—trends do sometimes
emerge from many seemingly insignificant and trivial things.”

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HANG GLIDING & PARAGLIDING MAGAZINE

As for respecting privacy or avoiding embarrassment, Mitch reminds
us, “When something happens within
our free-flight community, thinking
that ‘nobody else is going to find out’
is generally unrealistic. Word gets out
through a variety of sources, many not
very fair, factual or experienced. Your
Accident Reporting committee is fair,
factual and experienced—we have no
other stake in this fight other than to
learn and share helpful information to
our pilot community. What is eventually shared will be carefully considered,
and will typically consist of the lessons
learned from a trend in several accident
reports. First and foremost we need to
make sure we get the whole story of the
what/why/how’s of the entire accident
before that information is lost.”
If the pilot directly involved in the
accident or incident isn’t willing or
able to file a report, should s