Departure Gate
Letters to the editor
Information for the traveller
Dear Editor,
Having read your excellent magazine for several years, I welcome the addition of Jonathan Hinkles’ Sky View. His articles always offer a very informative insight to the topic featured each month. Although I may occasionally disagree with his opinion, I completely concur with his viewpoint about safety culture (Airliner World, May 2025).
Having previously worked for many years in the logistics and aviation industries, I fully understand the importance of a proper safety culture. When correctly practised, this not only minimises the risk of accidents, but also maximises the ability to conduct a full and effective investigation when accidents do happen. Following a major incident (eg, air crash), regrettably too often nowadays one of the first questions asked, often in the media, is “Who’s to blame?”. In the immediate aftermath of a serious incident, only a few certain facts are known. All the hard, relevant facts that will contribute to establishing exactly what happened will only come to light after a thorough and often lengthy investigation. It serves no purpose to point a finger at someone, even anonymously, before all the relevant facts are established.