Page 75 - Never Fly Solo

48 | NEVER FLY SOLO
• How can I reestablish trust? Start by saying (publicly
if possible) two magic words that are rarely heard
today: “I’m sorry.” Then stop beating yourself up
over the infraction and get about the work of
repairing trust.

In 1994, during a weekend air show in Washington State,
a perfectly operational B-52 military aircraft crashed in a hor-
rifying blaze. The pilot had exceeded the maximum bank
angle for the B-52 at low altitude, which caused the plane to
stall. The pilot and three crew members were killed and the
community and hundreds of lives were devastated. The pilot
was a maverick who repeatedly violated flying regulations but
was never grounded for his mistakes. Many knew of these
breaches but simply turned a blind eye, and those who spoke
up got no support from the wing commander, whom the pilot
was friendly with. The commander failed to ground him for
his poor airmanship, and this lack of leadership played just as
big a role as the pilot’s hotdogger mentality in the tragedy. As
commander, he should have held the pilot accountable to Air
Force standards. Instead, he mirrored the pilot’s lack of integ-
rity. By ignoring smaller consequences, the commander let
them grow to catastrophic proportions.
I can’t emphasize this enough: your level of integrity has
huge implications. Your actions may not cost the lives of your
crew, but you might destroy your reputation, your department,
your company, your partnerships, or even your family. As a
leader, you must also be willing to risk losing the relationship
with someone who lacks integrity for the benefit of your orga-
nization. If the wing commander had disciplined and grounded
the maverick B-52 pilot whom he was friendly with and put
the needs of his troops first, four lives may have been saved.