Acronyms - the definition

[GrauGeist]

In a rural county just to the west of here, they have a Public Utilities that uses an acronym with the county's name in it: Trinity county Public Utilities or "PUD"

The problem is, "pud" is also a slang word for a part of a male's anatomy. So *technically* speaking, if you were to go to their office and strike the building repeatedly, you would be "whacking your pud".

Some acronyms are not a good idea...

 

[MiTasol]

In Australia the Department of Many Names is currently Officially called CASA -- officially meaning Civil Aviation Safety Authority (the current interpretation is not polite but includes "and stupid")

At different stages in the past they were known as

CAA - Cease All Aviation

DCA - too many versions

DOT - Detriment of Transport (and they had an emblem that consisted of 3 arrows crossing at 120 increments - well known as the DoT Compass and said to clearly indicate the direction the department was heading)

OCA - for only about a month in the 80s so that did not get corrected

Their ability to produce "intelligent" (to them) regulations like "Used parts must be accompanied by a Certificate stating they are new" is exceeded only by

1. their refusal to use standard ICAO definitions (eg they do not even call part 1 Definitions and Abbreviations like most of the rest of the world because that would be accepting that the rest of the world actually knows something about aviation) and
   
2. their ability to pretend that Qantas has never had an accident.

 

[stona]

ITheir ability to produce "intelligent" (to them) regulations like "Used parts must be accompanied by a Certificate stating they are new" is exceeded only by....their ability to pretend that Qantas has never had an accident.

I've only ever heard the claim that Quantas has never suffered a fatal accident involving a jet airliner. I actually don't know if that's true or not.
Accidents and fatalities in earlier days are well known and recorded.
Cheers
Steve

 

[MiTasol]

Hi Steve

I've only ever heard the claim that Quantas has never suffered a fatal accident involving a jet airliner. I actually don't know if that's true or not.
Cheers
Steve

In Aus Qantas promote the film Rainman heavily (seems to repeat on the idiot box every few months) because Raymond says Qantas is the only airline that has never had an accident. It is also promoted in Australia as based on a true story but if you go to https://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety...ticles/rain-man-the-movie-rain-man-real-life/ you find it is a mish-mash of characters and that two of the main characters it is based on (Peek and Sullivan) actually lived with their parents, not in an institution.
To quote One was Kim Peek (described elsewhere on this website). Another was an autistic savant and his brother (just as in the movie) who prefer to remain anonymous. He spent a great deal of time with them in their typical family activities. The other autistic savant Dustin Hoffman got to know well was Joseph Sullivan, who lives in Huntington, West Virginia along with his parents, Drs. Ruth and William Sullivan.

The other savant Hoffman studied also appears to have had full family support. Kim Peek died recently but Joseph Sullivan is still alive and has a job because of his mother's efforts to set up a system of services not only for her son, but for many others like him, through the Autism Services Center she has established in Huntington, West Virginia.

If you talk to Qantas staff all will tell you Qantas has never had an accident because that is the company mantra that they have drummed into them. In my work (Air Safety) I routinely blow that myth away and always emphasise that the biggest single cause of accidents is complacency. Qantas has had many accidents recently and yet still insists on calling all their accidents "incidents", even the Bangkok one, and repeating the errors that lead to recent accidents.

If you fly commercial you will know that most airlines tell pax sitting next to exits how to operate them and that the most important thing before opening an exit is to ensure there is no fire or other hazard that will make the slide unsafe. Qantas insist that only crew can open exits and that the Captain must initiate any evacuation even thought the captain is usually the first killed in an accident. Read the Flight Safety Foundation report into the Qantas accident at Bangkok for a summary of the full scary story. Most airlines insist that in the case of an accident all pax must be evacuated within 90 seconds of engine shutdown in case of fire. Qantas waited 14 minutes before evacuation commenced and it took them 7 minutes to do the evacuation.

Here is an escape slide deployed by Qantas cabin crew at Bangkok

The accident itself was almost a rerun of their first jet accident - the 707 at Singapore in the early 60's.
In both cases the aircraft was beyond economic repair but they rebuilt them so they did not have to admit to a hull loss.

 

[stona]

I suppose that slide is one way of getting rid of first class passengers
Cheers
Steve

 

[GregP]

If there were no fatalities, then they haven't had a fatality, maybe, other than medical? Or not?

Good record, anyway!

 

[Thorlifter]

Certainly no ones fault the plane came to a stop perfectly aligned with a tree that held up the slide.

 

[Marcel]

Here in the Netherlands we used to have the Katholieke Universiteit Tilburg (Catholic University Tilburg) which was KUT as acronym. And that word is also slang for the female genitals in Dutch.

 

[GregP]

DUA = Don't Use Acronyms ...

 

[MiTasol]

If there were no fatalities, then they haven't had a fatality, maybe, other than medical? Or not?
Good record, anyway!

Hi Greg
Many fatalities but none recently other than from Deep Vein Thrombosis.
Somewhere I have the official history of QF to 1966 written by one of the founders (Sir Hudson Fysh) who was CEO until his retirement.
each volume has an appendix on accidents and the appendix is incomplete - Vol 3 has a big write-up on the San Francisco crash (no survivors) and the court cases that went on for years but it did not make the appendix. I will scan and post the appendix and some photos if I can find the book.
Likewise some photos of destroyed aircraft do not make the index.
As any safety professional will tell you the biggest cause of accidents is complacency.
I never fly on any airline that tells its staff it has never had an accident - especially when it is far from accident free and has had plenty of (non fatal) accidents and incidents over the last 12 months. Non fatal accidents and incidents are the warning of a big one coming up
ICAO in its training in 2009 used this figure as a guide

Damn - will not upload - will try again

Mi

 

[pbehn]

Non fatal accidents and incidents are the warning of a big one coming up
ICAO in its training in 2009 used this figure as a guide

Mi

I worked for one company on an oil project whose manager declared "there will be no accidents on this project" this of course meant no accidents were reported, not even minor ones. A ridiculous and dangerous attitude to have.

 

[stona]

I worked for one company on an oil project whose manager declared "there will be no accidents on this project" this of course meant no accidents were reported, not even minor ones. A ridiculous and dangerous attitude to have.

And illegal, at least in the UK.
Cheers
Steve

 

[pbehn]

And illegal, at least in the UK.
Cheers
Steve

It was in the UK.

 

[stona]

It was in the UK.

I'm not a H+S guy, but I deal with them on a regular basis (working at heights, rope access and stuff like that). Had something happened on that project that had led to the involvement of the HSE then the excrement would surely have hit the rotating ventilator. Like many things, it's all good until it goes wrong, whereupon it isn't

Cheers

Steve

 

[pbehn]

I'm not a H+S guy, but I deal with them on a regular basis. Had something happened on that project that had led to the involvement of the HSE then the excrement would surely have hit the rotating ventilator. Like many things, it's all good until it goes wrong, whereupon it isn't
Cheers
Steve

It was the client that said it, to take action would mean prosecuting your client, if anything did happen (actually many things did happen but were not reported) then the claim would be against the constructor not the client. The client basks in the glory of a project that is accident free while the constructor fiddles the books and takes the risk. All is well until there is a serious accident and then people go to jail.

 

[stona]

All is well until there is a serious accident and then people go to jail.

And/or receive a hefty fine. The HSE seem quite keen on fines

Cheers

Steve

 

[pbehn]

And/or receive a hefty fine. The HSE seem quite keen on fines

Fines are usually appropriate because corners are cut to save money and many issues are to do with management and admin rather than wilful negligence. The case I had in mind was this.
BHP Billiton Petroleum Ltd & Ors v Dalmine SpA, Court of Appeal - Commercial Court, May 16, 2002, [2002] EWHC 970 (Comm)

I knew the guy mentioned in para 18 B. I had dinner at his house which was also part of the family undertaking business, you dont forget things like that. Fiddling CEV values on a certificate doesnt sound all that serious, however when you weld the steel they supplied it cracked a few days after welding, that is after all tests had been passed. He and a few others were jailed to deter anyone else with the same idea. If every manufacturer did that there would be pipe lines blowing and structures collapsing all over.

 

[MiTasol]

As a indication of Qantas's safety culture. The Bangkok accident is an accident by every aviation definition except the QF definition.
According to Qantas the Bangkok accident was only an incident.

 

[Robert Porter]

Now you guys have got a song stuck in my head... "There were incidents and accidents..." dang it!

 

[stona]

1-10-30 are the usual ratios given in the Heinrich/Bird triangle. If you are interested you can look it up and find out what that refers to
As I said, I'm not an H+S guy, but it helps to know some of this stuff when you have to deal with them!
Cheers
Steve