Flight Safety Australia analyses an ugly phrase in its May–June 2017 lead story. The myths of pilot error looks at several of the many reasons why that neat-sounding two word explanation, so beloved of mainstream reporting on aviation, is inadequate and often misleading. Pilots make errors, of course, because they are human, but to be satisfied with this as an explanation of any accident or incident, without further inquiry or analysis, is in itself a grave error.
Decisions, decisions: deep thinkers’ thoughts on how we decide, examines the related topic of aeronautical decision making, taking in recent developments in cognitive psychology, and the ongoing Safety in Mind series looks at normalisation of deviance, a pernicious phenomenon regularly found in the analysis of major disasters. A second chance: drinking or drugs don’t have to end your career highlights a promising program to safely return aircrew to cockpit duties after alcohol or other drug dependence. Contributor Adrian Park tells the sad story of a helicopter crash in South Korea involving a crew under pressure to perform in weather that should have kept them safely on the ground. Thomas P. Turner looks at getting off the ground in safety and style in an analysis of an often overlooked phase of flight—taking-off.
Kreisha Ballantyne takes a light-hearted look at what young computer savvy pilots can learn from their analog-era elders—and vice versa. Our airworthiness feature spotlights a long-serving piston engine component, the magneto. And we look back 90 years to the anniversary of Charles Lindbergh’s New York–Paris flight of May 1927. It’s a story with many safety examples, most of them in the breach.
The popular quiz and reader-submitted close calls round out a packed issue.
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