Sunday 31 January 2021

Death of the Compass boss was surely preventable

 Last week, there was published the report into the light airplane crash in Australia which killed Richard Cousins, his fiancee, his two sons and her daughter. It was found that the pilot had become confused by ingress of carbon monoxide through various cracks and holes. The inquiry recommended fitting of active carbon monoxide detectors in airplane cabins.

This is not the first time that a carbon monoxide leak has been implicated in a fatal crash of a light aircraft. The year before the Australian tragedy, a float plane had flown into a hillside near Anchorage, Alaska, killing the experienced pilot. It was quickly established that CO must have been the primary cause. If CO detection devices had been made mandatory by national air safety authorities as a result of the NTSB inquiry on that occasion, then several other fatal crashes may have been prevented, including that which took the life of newly-signed Cardiff footballer Emiliano Sala.


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