normal accident

It’s no accident — it’s a crash

By Dave English

Interesting article yesterday in the New York Times, titled ‘It’s no accident: Advocates want to speak of car ‘crashes’ instead’. It’s about safety advocates changing language use from a car accident to a car crash. The AP recently revised their style guide. Dr Rosekind of the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is on board, saying, “When you use the word accident, it’s like, ‘God made it happen.’” The thinking is that ‘accident’ may make us shrug our shoulders and think, oh well, what can you do, accidents happen. ‘Accident’ may trivialize that most common cause of traffic incidents: human … Continue reading It’s no accident — it’s a crash

Airmanship at a distance

By Dave English

This is a sad story. But important to think about. For we are all our brother’s keeper. The news headline this weekend was ‘Flight school sued over death of student‘. Fox5 reported: A 21-year-old’s dream of becoming a pilot was cut short when during flight school his plane came crashing down, killing him, according to a lawsuit filed Friday in Cobb County. The father of the young man filed that suit alleging the school was negligent by forgetting to refuel the plane. “I don’t want another family to experience that kind of loss,” said Michael Hughes. This was the reason … Continue reading Airmanship at a distance

Procedural drift and the sandbar

By Dave English

On 3 January 2015, the large ship MV Hoegh Osaka left the British port of Southhampton. An hour later she made a turn to port, then began listing markedly to one side. Soon enough the rudder and propellor were out the water. In flying terms, ‘departure from controlled float’ we could say. Fifteen minutes after the turn she was grounded on the Bramble Bank sandbar off the Isle of Wight. Settling down with a list that would eventually reach 52°. The ship was about half full, loaded with 1,200 Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles worth over $45 million. Now, this accident isn’t as serious as … Continue reading Procedural drift and the sandbar

Airport worker killed in “freak accident”

By Dave English

The Daily Express newspaper reports today that an airport worker was killed in a “freak accident.” He was sucked into a jet engine. Or as human factors professionals calls it, a “normal accident”. An Air India official told The Hindustan Times: At the moment, we are absolutely clueless on how this person was near the aircraft. Only an inquiry can establish whose negligence it was and whether the engine should have been switched on at that time.   Comforting to know the negligence witch-hunt has started. Someone must be at fault. Wonder if any management or regulatory people will get blamed for … Continue reading Airport worker killed in “freak accident”

Blame the pilots?

By Dave English

Air Force Times article from two days ago sums up the results of a six-week investigation of the October 3rd bombing of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan that killed 30 people – Crew Blamed. However the news story also notes deeper systematic issues, a culture that places pilots into impossible situations. But you can’t discipline a procedure or a rule or a culture. And no general is going to fall on his sword when there are crew that can be blamed for their ‘human error’.  “The direct result of human error, compounded by systems and procedural failures.” Army … Continue reading Blame the pilots?