Question of the Week: This week, AVweb wants to hear your opinion on which humans (ultimately) bear the responsibility for human error on the runway.

Question of the Week

This week, AVweb wants to hear your opinion on which humans (ultimately) bear the responsibility for human error on the runway.

A controller can clear you onto a specific runway, but if you find yourself somewhere else, who bears responsibility for that mistake? Pick the answer that best matches your opinion.

The pilot in command is responsible for the safety of the flight.

It's first and foremost the controller's job to make sure each airplane is where it's told to be.

A mix of PIC and controller. PIC is fine for the books, but situational awareness is a different animal. It's always a shared, overlapping responsibility. Example: In the days of position and hold, I'd like to think the controllers were making sure I was where they told me to be when they told me to be there — likewise for the aircraft that might be bearing down on me or still on the runway ahead.

Sometimes pilots are responsible; sometimes controllers are responsible.

This goes beyond just controllers and pilots. If you can see the aircraft and talk to the aircraft and/or if that aircraft is in your charge, its position is your responsibility. That means pilots and controllers and sometimes ground crew.

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