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How many accidents blamed on "pilot error" are a result of the pilot not being given enough information to make the right decision, or given the wrong informati

How many accidents blamed on "pilot error" are a result of the pilot not being given enough information to make the right decision, or given the wrong information? I'm not saying that pilots are completely faultless but if they're making mistakes we should look to improve the systems and procedures that allow them to make the right decisions, not start pointing fingers.

CaptainZapp 8y ago
I'd wager that pilots, like any other professionals, make mistakes all the time. This, however, is mitigated by a regulatory, technological and cultural safety net, which usually corrects such mistakes. For example: There's an important cultural understanding that pilots admit safety relevant issues, even if they made a mistake in the process and not getting punished for it. The effect is that all involved entities learn from that and correct it in the future. When something really bad happens pilot error is mostly part of the puzzle, but the bad outcome is a sequence of problems, which lead to catastrophy. A great example is the worst disaster in civil aviation history ever[1], which ultimately was triggered by the error of a very experienced pilot. But there were a lot of small puzzle pieces, which needed to fall into place for this catastrophy to happen. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster edit : spello
sokoloff 8y ago
I agree with CaptainZapp’s comments next to this one. The process you describe does happen, but IMO, clearly articulating the facts and assigning findings of probable cause (the latter is what you term pointing fingers) is an essential element of that improvement process. The is a strong safety culture in aviation overall. It’s rare for one isolated mistake to result in a hull loss, but rather is usually a series of issues where the “holes in the Swiss cheese all line up”. No doubt Boeing and others are going to improve technical and human factors elements from this crash. It doesn’t help anyone in this process to not assign probable cause, IMO.

CaptainZapp 8y ago

I'd wager that pilots, like any other professionals, make mistakes all the time. This, however, is mitigated by a regulatory, technological and cultural safety net, which usually corrects such mistakes. For example: There's an important cultural understanding that pilots admit safety relevant issues, even if they made a mistake in the process and not getting punished for it. The effect is that all involved entities learn from that and correct it in the future. When something really bad happens pilot error is mostly part of the puzzle, but the bad outcome is a sequence of problems, which lead to catastrophy. A great example is the worst disaster in civil aviation history ever[1], which ultimately was triggered by the error of a very experienced pilot. But there were a lot of small puzzle pieces, which needed to fall into place for this catastrophy to happen. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenerife_airport_disaster edit : spello

sokoloff 8y ago

I agree with CaptainZapp’s comments next to this one. The process you describe does happen, but IMO, clearly articulating the facts and assigning findings of probable cause (the latter is what you term pointing fingers) is an essential element of that improvement process. The is a strong safety culture in aviation overall. It’s rare for one isolated mistake to result in a hull loss, but rather is usually a series of issues where the “holes in the Swiss cheese all line up”. No doubt Boeing and others are going to improve technical and human factors elements from this crash. It doesn’t help anyone in this process to not assign probable cause, IMO.