For those who study incidents and accidents in aviation we know that most accidents are indeed a comedy of errors and usually not simply one mistake by a pilot or one failure of a component. NTSB reports on aircraft accidents often give a break down of the events leading up to the crashes and the synopsis is generally always the same. It is multiple events occurred just like the Sh*t Happens bumper stickers or the shoptalk in the hangar with the mechanics regarding Murphyism. One only has to read 20-30 of these NTSB reports to know in advance what the next one will say. It is almost like you only need to read one paragraph and you can fill in the rest without even reading the whole thing. Now then it would appear that since these accidents are so similar in nature that more people would see the warnings and alarm bells as more and more problems start adding up. You see a really good pilot is one who never has to use his superior skill to get out of a really bad problem, because he never gets into it in the first place. It seems when we teach people to operate machinery, drive a car or fly a plane we often do not explain how and why accidents happen. There is a very easy theory, which can be derived in the study of accidents. There are signs; minor problems which accumulate until that fatal flaw. I hope you will philosophize on this concept a bit, as it could very well save your life one day. So, consider all this in 2006. |
