By doing the right thing, reporting the incident, it ultimately ended up costing a job. While without a doubt we should be held ultimately accountable for our actions, I have a huge problem with this mentality where filling out a safety report results in disciplinary action.

A few months back, a similar situation ocurred. We had just started our day (extremely tired, reduced rest, no chance to eat breakfast....) and began our takeoff roll for our first flight. A few seconds later we got an aural warning for a configuration problem early in the takeoff. The captain, realizing the mistake, fixed the configuration problem during the takeoff run and continued. A while later we discussed what had happened, and his comment was something like this: "I will never abort for any problem that might have been caused by an error on our part. If we do, management will ultimately find out which will result in unpaid time off and disciplinary action, which I cannot afford. The path of least resistance is that of which nobody finds out what happens out here. That is why I don't fill out ANY paperwork when I can avoid it."

Very interesting philosophy, but I can understand his point. However, I also think this creates a cockpit environment where, in the right situation, could prove deadly. Unfortunately, I think this type of situation happens more often than we would like to think..........