Why report it when you don't actually hit the water, just get close to it.



https://avherald.com/h?article=504d75c7&opt=0

You don't report it because you don't have asap, or anything remotely resembling a just culture and both would be fired. And probably given 50 lashes and thrown in prison.

But even I don't hand fly with no guidance at night over water or in IMC, so that wasn't the best move.

Perhaps twice over the years I've taken the airplane as we were departing that neck of the woods. Typical clear night, northbound, right turn over the gulf. Stars above, flames on oil wells, and water that was more like a mirror. The pilot flying lost it, and by that I mean lost orientation. I took the airplane for a moment while they paused, reset, and we moved on. Never a case of diving for the water or anything like that, but the news article at the outset is vague and third-party, without detail, so could be anything from there-I-was-flat-on-my-back, to two airplanes sharing the same hemisphere nearly collided, because they were only 2,000 miles apart, and that's really close...in stellar terms. Who knows?

Great example of why just culture is a good thing.