Has aviation flown into Covid Corner?
A place where risks associated with Covid policy are being ignored because the ramifications are massive.
Coffin Corner
In flying, “coffin corner” is a potentially bad place to be, typically up near the aircraft’s maximum altitude (service ceiling). It’s where the aircraft is very close to stalling (the wings stop producing lift) and simultaneously close to overspeeding (exceeding structural speed limits). As the above graph shows, the “corner” is the red tip/apex of the triangle where the stall and the overspeed meet. The basic way out is to descend. If the pilot isn’t careful when flying in coffin corner, the aircraft will “descend” on its own when it stalls or sustains structural damage.
It should be noted that “falling out of the sky” is not the same as “flying downwards”. At all. The former is an aviation incident or accident that can result in bent metal, injuries and death. The latter implies some form of control and rational action leading to reduced risk and positive outcome.
Covid Corner
Today, there’s a distinct possibility that the entire global aviation industry has just flown, willingly, into Covid Corner.
My definition of Covid Corner:
Circumstances under which flying is conducted despite inherent risks from Covid policy that are so big that all parties involved have both the power and the shared incentive to simply ignore and deny those risks.
If causality or responsibility was found to lie with those parties, the scale and costs of litigation could be enormous. If the worst of these risks actually manifest, aviation incidents and accidents will result.
Examples of such policy include:
forced masking; and
the irreversible mandated, coerced or encouraged Covid-19 vaccinations for passengers and employees.
Beyond litigation, there are the inherent real world risks of flying - crashes, accidents, injuries and deaths - that are being exacerbated by Covid-19 policy and whose negative effects are being ignored.
Three articles (below) outline some aspects of various issues that passengers and employees should know about.
Has Aviation Backed Itself Into a Corner?
Pilots and Covid-19 Vaccine Injury
Informal guidance for people who may have sustained Covid-19 vaccine injury
17/05/2022: The Global Aviation Advocacy Coalition released a global open statement about concerns around flight safety with specific Calls To Action.
Read the statement here.