Nordica

Through windy skies, I am back flying the Estonian subsidiary Xfly Nordica as I head down to Malmö this morning. Since these CRJ900 aircrafts lack in-flight internet, I have to take a break with the marking so instead I am reading a slightly scary report about how a first officer aboard a Qatar Airways 787 most likely experienced a somatogravic illusion after departing Doha at night, almost crashing the plane into the black sea below before the captain realized what was going on and was able to regain control over the aircraft. What is most frightening about the story is not the incident as such, there have been many similar ones in the past, but the fact that it went unreported for a month, presumably due to fear of reprisals for the crew involved. Aviation safety, like much else, really depends on transparency and that we acknowledge human fallibility.