Remember that pilot who's pistol discharged...

[767Jockey]

Originally Posted by AMF

It's simple.

Make the penalty for an accidental discharge immediate termination and loss of flight status.

If that doesn't work, make the penalty for accidental discharge the supervisor's job and a fine.

In the military, the only way to prevent accidental discharges is to punish that person's supervisor. That way it's almost assured that it will get checked and double checked and the individual will receive more training than they can stand.

Don't punish the people who follow the rules. Punish the idiot who doesn't and if that's not enough, punish his boss.

Actually, It's not that simple at all.
First of all this is a volunteer program. Threaten a guy that if he makes a mistake he'll lose pay or his job, and they'll all resign from the program about as fast as they can get through on the phone to do so. There is no pay No pay involved for the program, lots of free time is donated to it to qualify and stay current.

The problem is that the program is set up so that the pilot has to handle the gun, lock and unlock, don and remove, many times per flight. It's ridiculous. Let the guys wear the gun like every other law enforcement officer can, lose the silly locks, and if more training is required to allow that, pay them to attend so they can get the requisite training. The program is set up so accidents like these are inevitable. This may be the first, it won't be the last.