We all make mistakes in life. Some of them are minor, you know, like spilling milk, taking the wrong turn on the road, or forgetting to close the fridge door. Other mistakes are catastrophic and it can take years to repair the damage, if it can be fixed at all.
Surprisingly, you'll find that many philosophers do not scorn mistakes but instead embrace them. Daniel Dennett is a good example of this, and he has written at length about humanness of erring, and how we should respond to errors to lead a good life. He points out the following:
Mistakes are not just opportunities for learning; they are, in an important sense, the only opportunity for learning or making something truly new. Before there can be learning, there must be learners. There are only two non-miraculous ways for learners to come into existence: they must either evolve or be designed and built by learners that evolved. Biological evolution proceeds by a grand, inexorable process of trial and error β and without the errors the trials wouldn't accomplish anything.
The solution to mistakes? Don't hide them.
The chief trick to making good mistakes is not to hide them β especially not from yourself. Instead of turning away in denial when you make a mistake, you should become a connoisseur of your own mistakes, turning them over in your mind as if they were works of art, which in a way they are. The fundamental reaction to any mistake ought to be this: βWell, I won't do that again!β
To Nietzche, mistakes were a part of life, but they were also to be warred against and defeated. Only the weak - those infected by slave morality - valorize mistakes. The ubermensch conquers mistakes.
We have reached mastery when we neither mistake nor hesitate in the achievement.
Who do you agree with more?
Today, we're going to look at two cases of individuals who made mistakes that caused great suffering to others. Consider the following as you read:
Was the mistake a product of stupidity (failure of reason) or confusion (failure of data)?
Was it an easily preventable mistake?
Where does the moral culpability lie?
AEROFLOT FLIGHT 593
People consider many things when picking a profession. The pay, the ease of entry, and family expectations are all things that one might think about as one plans one's career. For many, they are primarily drawn to prestige and status. There are very few jobs that offer status, and they are very hard to get into, which is partially why people are so impressed by those in the profession. Examples include surgeons, engineers, judges, and athletes.
Being a pilot is very prestigious, but one man let it consume him a little too much. On 23 March 1994, Aeroflot Flight 593 took off from Sheremetyevo Alexander S. Pushkin International Airport in Moscow, Russia. It wasn't a particularly large plane, holding only 63 passengers and 12 crew members. In the cockpit we have Andrey Viktorovich Danilov the captain with close to 10,000 hours of flight time. He was assisted by first officer Vasilyevich Piskaryov and relief captain Yaroslav Vladimirovich Kudrinsky.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aeroflot_Flight_593
Kudrinsky is who we'll focus on. He had close to 9,000 hours of flight time, and on this particular flight, he also had his two children on board. The eldest one was Eldar, who was 15 and looked up to his pilot father. The youngest was Yana, and she was 13. To impress his kids, he let them into the cockpit. While this may sound absurd now, this was pre-9/11 and while it wasn't something that was explicitly allowed, it wasn't punished either.
For Kudrinsky, merely letting his children into the cockpit wasn't enough. He had to let them touch the controls too. He had put the plane on autopilot before he let Yana in the seat. He told her to turn left and to her astonishment, the plane turned left! With eyes as wide as a saucer, Eldar wanted to try too. Of course, he got a turn. He was instructed to turn right, and when he did so, the plane slowly turned in that direction. Being a little older, Eldar wasn't as easily fooled and he soon realized his father was adjusting the autopilot. The kids had never had control!
It was a relatively harmless practice in theory. When the autopilot is on, the plane does not accept input from the control column. Unfortunately, Kudrinsky made a mistake. He did not know that the autopilot could be disengaged if you yanked the column hard for 30 seconds. The thinking behind this design is that in such a situation the human is clearly attempting to avoid a danger that the plane cannot detect, and it should defer control to the human.
In normal situations, nobody would yank at the control column for 30 seconds while the plane was on autopilot. But this wasn't a normal situation - a kid was in the pilot's seat. Eldar yanked hard while his father was distracted. The boy was still having fun imagining himself as a pilot. Eventually, he noticed that the plane was banking right and alerted his father. Kudrinsky and his coworkers were confused at first. They thought the plane was on autopilot, but the flight path indicator was telling them that they were making a 180-degree turn. By the time they figured out the problem, precious seconds had passed and it was too late, the plane had turned at such a sharp angle that the G forces kept everyone glued to their seats or the wall - everyone in the plane.
Kudrinsky attempted to instruct his son on what to do, but there's only so much a 13-year-old can manage in such circumstances. The plane could not handle the extreme forces it was being subjected to, and it stalled, causing it to nosedive like a gannet with its eyes on a trout. When a window of opportunity arose and the G forces dipped, Kudrinsky took Eldar's place. He and Piskaryov tried the best they could to regain control of the plane and level it out, but there was just not enough time left. The plane crashed into Kuznetsk Alatau mountain range, killing everyone on board.
You can hear the entire cockpit recording here (with subtitles). Warning for sensitive listeners. It's not graphic, but it is grim. It is also interesting to note that Kudrinsky takes out his anger on his son.
Kudrinsky's first error was bad, but it was somewhat excusable. Which father doesn't want to impress their kids? Nevertheless, he shouldn't have been playing games with people's lives. Unfortunately, there's a second error. All the struggle was for nothing. In fact, it made the situation worse. You see, though all the pilots had plenty of flight experience, they were relatively novices when it came to the A310-304. This is why it took them so long to figure out there was a problem in the first place. It's the reason why they didn't know about the control column's ability to disengage the autopilot. Their ignorance blinded them to another feature the plane had - if they had just let go of the controls, the plane would have corrected itself.
For a full breakdown of the tragedy, read the investigation report which outlines all the mistakes made.
https://reports.aviation-safety.net/1994/19940323-0_A310_F-OGQS.pdf
HI-FI MURDERS
Have you ever been deeply influenced by a movie? During the heyday of Fast and the Furious, police would note an increase in traffic crimes when the films hit theatres. Scream inspired two teens to kill their friend. For our last case today, we'll look at two people who were looking for a way to quickly and efficiently kill victims in a robbery. They turned to the movie Magnum Force for answers. In the film, a pimp murders a prostitute by forcing her to drink Drano which kills her almost instantly.
Our criminals are Dale Pierre and William Andrews who were both US airmen. They had their target picked out - the Hi-fi Shop in Ogden, Utah. It was 1974, and electronics were expensive and popular, so they stood a chance of making lots of money. They managed to convince four other men to join them in what they claimed was a robbery. When the shop was about to close Peirre, Andrews and one other man walked into the store. The rest stayed by two vans outside which they were going to load up with the stolen goods.
Upon entering, they immediately made their intentions known. There were only two people in the store:
Stanley Walker (20)
Michelle Ansley (18)
They were held hostage while the goons loaded up sound equipment and other expensive electronics. Things did not go according to plan. A teen named Cortney Naisbitt entered the store, so they decided to tie him (yes him) up as well. Later, 43yo Orren Walker came around looking for Stanley and he was taken hostage, then Courtney's mom, Carol Naisbitt came around looking for Cortney so she was taken hostage as well, leaving them with five hostages total. They are put in the basement.
With all the goods taken, all the crooks flee. Well, all of them except for Pierre and Andrews. They wanted to get rid of the witnesses. For that, they have Drano. To trick the hostages into drinking it, they pour it into a glass and tell them that it is vodka laced with sleeping pills. The hostages refuse, so they have to be forced. Carol is forced first. The effects are immediate. The corrosive liquid burns their lips, causing the skin to slip off. As it goes down their oesophagus, it causes severe burns all the way into the stomach lining. Orren is the only one who does not drink the Drano because he fakes it.
At this point, the two criminals begin to realize their big mistake - movies aren't real life. They did not get the quick and quiet murder of Magnum Force. It was loud and slow as they screamed and writhed in agony. They tried to duct tape their mouths shut, but their skinless lips provided no surface for the adhesive tape to stick to. At this point, Andrews realized he was in over his head and split. Note, Wikipedia gets this part of the murders wrong, as most sources claim Andrews left while Wiki claims he stayed.
Pierre had a backup plan - his handgun. He pulled it out and shot Carol and Cortney in the head, killing Carol. Cortney survived but was grievously injured. More mistakes were made as he missed Orren twice before killing Stanley Walker. This should have been quick, but it was getting louder and messier.
The murdering stopped when Pierre had a coomer emergency. He took Ansley and r*ped her for half an hour before fatally shooting her in the head. If you're keeping track, that's three dead, leaving two alive.
He falsely assumed Cortney was dead so he set their sights on Orren. Enraged, Pierre tied a wire around his neck and tried to strangle him. He failed at that and Orren lived. Frustrated, Pierre did the unthinkable. He took a ballpoint pen and inserted it on Orren, who was lying on the ground. He then stomped on it until exited his throat. Satisfied with his work, he left.
Orren was not dead. This was good, as he became a star witness that helped ensure the two cretins received the death sentence.
https://www.abc4.com/news/justice-files/the-justice-files-the-ogden-hi-fi-murders
CONCLUSION
We all make mistakes, and this is unavoidable. Your only hope is to find a cope and cross your fingers that you never make a mistake as disastrous as these fools.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
It's gotta be a huge jump going from Soviet planes where everything is labor intensive to Airbus where everything is about automation even way more than Boeing.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
More options
Context