The Tricks Used by Pilots, Surgeons & Engineers to Overcome Human Error
When Germanwings Flight 4U9525 crashed into the French Alps in March it did not take investigators long to determine the likely reason: Co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had allegedly been suffering from depression and may have crashed the plane as a means to commit suicide, taking hundreds of people along with him. But that doesn’t tell the whole story; investigators needed to know more. Why was he allowed to pilot a jet full of passengers despite his treatment for mental illness? How did he manage to lock the pilot out of the cockpit? What faults in the system allowed that fatal combination of circumstances to occur?
Such questions have become routine following major accidents. They reflect an understanding that in any complex technological system the human is but a single component, albeit a crucial
