When a pilot crashes his new plane on the same day he bought it, NTSB investigators discovered the smoking gun for the accident was a part that pilots can’t see during a preflight.
Human Factors
Human Factors: A good airplane in a bad neighborhood
In addition to picking the right airplane for the job, an important pilot skill is bringing the same level of thought to picking the right airport for the airplane.
Human Factors: A poorly-timed thumb’s up
There are only two types of pilots in the world: Those who have left the wheel chocks in place and those who will.
Human Factors: Even a little crash can be deadly
More often than not, it’s the little things that kill you. For instance, of all the myriad hazards of flying the bush in Alaska, death by pond taxi in the state’s third-largest city would seem so low on the list of possibilities as to be nearly impossible. And yet…
Human Factors: Cool as a cucumber
In his well-written and detailed accounting of the accident to the NTSB, it’s clear the pilot was still completely stumped about what caused his engine issues. Carb ice simply doesn’t enter his mind as a possibility.
Human Factors: An unhealthy tango for two
We have a less than ideal airport layout with intersecting runways, view-limiting terrain, and published data ignored by the locals. Why, yes, that does seem like a good recipe for an accident, doesn’t it?
Human Factors: Fuel factors
At the accident site, an Amazon warehouse parking lot in Akron, Ohio, investigators found no fuel in the 1973 Cessna 172M’s tanks, lines, or carburetor bowl — and only trace amounts in the fuel filter.
Human Factors: A competitive environment
What can we learn from a fatal crash at a STOL competition?
Human Factors: Break out the booze
If you think it’s OK for you to drink when you fly, that you can handle it, you are wrong. And if you know someone who drinks before flying, or drinks in-flight, you need to intervene.