ORIGINAL: branded
Well, unless the person intentionally turns a transmitter on, it's an accident. Careless, and stupid, yes, but nevertheless, it's an accident.
I gave an example of one such instance I observed in post #9. Here's a guy that didn't intentionally start out to make a mistake, but did so anyway. He accidentally grabbed the wrong transmitter[/b], turned it on, then put it back, still turned on.
Is he "negligent". Yep, perhaps. Was it intentional? Nope.
Just to add a bit of perspective to this conversation, I haven't seen, nor heard of any such incident (shoot-down) in a few years.
Just luck here I guess.
Negligent is still negligent.
My personal opinion is;
If there is a mid-air, it falls in the "stuff happens" category. Which leads to the, "If you can't afford to lose it, don't fly it" category.
If someone turns a radio on when your flying, that's negligent.
There was a thread on here somewhere about a guy who finished flying, and handed the frequency pin to someone else. He forgot to turn off his radio, the second guy crashed. The second guy never did a range check after getting the pin. I took the position they were both equally at fault on that one.
Let's put it in perspective here using the age old car analogy system;
Your sitting at a stop light. I am pulling up behind you. Instead of hitting the brakes, I hit the accelerator. I smash into your car, putting you in the hospital, with say a couple of fractured vertabrae in your neck.
I didn't MEAN to hit the accelerator, it was an ACCIDENT, not intentional. Should my liability to your injuries be limited to $1000.00??