Some Thoughts On Election 2020
A year ago around this time a Part 135 flight that I was about to embark on got delayed multiple times and was eventually canceled. The weather was bad, with heavy snow and gusty wind. The federal code title 14 guarding the Part 135 carrier operations require the flight to be backed up with an alternate destination with an acceptable weather condition. Knowing the airframe was a single-engine turboprop PC-12, I was glad that the flight was canceled. At the same time, I started hearing other passengers complaining. They were told professionally by the crew that we can’t fly because we don’t have a proper alternate airport to land in case of desperate need. The passengers were skeptical and still complaining. I told them that it’s not up to the pilots not to fly, it’s the law and regulation. They simply dismissively responded: “That’s what they tell you”! It seemed very strange to me at the time that people wouldn’t trust documented regulation either do they bother to look it up, no matter how clearly it is explained, the service provider just will not be trusted. It was easier for them to believe that the flight crew was there to cancel the flight for their own interest in profit. And that the passengers were the powerless victims, in need of a tough figure to lead them out of the circumstance. Now I slowly start to understand the people’s deep distrust in the institutions, regardless of fields of expertise.
The news came in the next day that there was a PC-12 crash that night in South Dakota, killing 9.
The legitimacy of democracy is the right of governance, which is based upon a trustworthy relationship between the governed and the government. Such legitimacy certainly could be questioned, but it has to be based on legitimate claims and evidence. In the age of widespread misinformation, does it matter anymore? Will the legitimacy of democracy be in crisis in the new age of technology?
Anyhow, that’s when I decided I rather haul cargo than passengers.
https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/NR20191217.aspx
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