Ethics in the Aviation Profession

Ethics are a necessary application for all areas of our everyday lives. We as members of a working society have a responsibility to exercise ethics through every decision we make, as well as to hold others accountable for the decisions they make. Without ethics we cannot survive in our businesses, in our relationships, or even in our world together. Although opinions may vary on what is or is not morally ethical, the majority of the human race can see clearly how important ethics are. Aviation provides an excellent example of how vital maintaining our ethical structure is in order to succeed through something called ethics of consequentialism. Ethics of consequentialism is the theory that whether something is good or bad should be based on the outcomes. There is a wonderful book titled Ethical Issues in Aviation, by Elizabeth A. Hoppe, that uses the FAA as an excellent example of this. "The rules and regulations that the FAA creates are based on a cost-benefit approach to decision-making... Each agency is directed to use present and future benefits and costs as accurately as possible" (Hoppe, 2018, p. 27). 

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Although the FAA creating cost-benefit decision-making rules for airliners is more of an economically ethical vantage point, it works the exact same way when facing morally ethical consequences as well. In-fact, ensuring to consider both the moral and economical consequences will ensure to maintain the balance that aviation careers require. When working with something as expensive as aircraft, and as valuable as human life, any aviation company is going to want a person that not only makes the decisions necessary to save that company money, but also the decisions necessary to ensure safety for all men and women they are responsible for.