Hi all,
I was going through the list of AWAs where i came across the following argument. Had this been my AWA topic on the D-day I would have really been nervous. Can anyone please tell me what are the possible flaws in this argument below?
"The tragic crash of a medical helicopter last week points up a situation that needs to be addressed. The medicalhelicopter industry supposedly has more stringent guidelines for training pilots and maintaining equipment than do most other airline industries, but these guidelines do not appear to be working: statistics reveal that the rate of medical-helicopter accidents is much higher than the rate of accidents for nonmedical helicopters or commercial
airliners."
Any help would be appreciated
Thanks alot!
What could be the probable flaws in the argument below?
This topic has expert replies
GMAT/MBA Expert
- Brent@GMATPrepNow
- GMAT Instructor
- Posts: 16207
- Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pm
- Location: Vancouver, BC
- Thanked: 5254 times
- Followed by:1268 members
- GMAT Score:770
The suggestion is that the higher accident rate among medical-helicopters indicates poorly trained pilots and bad maintenance. This is not necessarily true. There are other possible explanations for these stats.srst wrote: "The tragic crash of a medical helicopter last week points up a situation that needs to be addressed. The medical helicopter industry supposedly has more stringent guidelines for training pilots and maintaining equipment than do most other airline industries, but these guidelines do not appear to be working: statistics reveal that the rate of medical-helicopter accidents is much higher than the rate of accidents for nonmedical helicopters or commercial
airliners."
Can we assume that the flying conditions are the same? No. Commercial airlines don't fly in bad weather, but emergency helicopters do. They fly in really bad weather because lives are at stake.
Medical helicopters fly at lower altitudes and must often fly into difficult locations (e.g. cliff ledge), where accidents are more likely.
Can we assume that the medical helicopters are the same make and model as non-medical helicopters? If the medical helicopters are not as advanced as non-medical helicopters then it may not be reasonable to conclude that the pilots and the maintenance are to blame.
That should be enough to work with.
Cheers,
Brent