The Naked Pilot

After landing safely back at the airport with a fire on board, no exit on a DC-8 was opened for 23 minutes and 301 people inside perished. Investigations into aircraft accidents often focus on what happened and who did it, but very rarely on why, which is the question this book addresses.

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Investigations into the causes of aircraft accidents have for decades focused on what happened and who did it - very rarely Why? It is the question Why? that David Beaty has addressed here, fighting the misnomer of 'pilot error' and propounding that the cause should be sought deeper inside human beings who make apparently simple human errors. In The Naked Pilot, David Beaty analyses not only human error flying accidents but also the latent predisposing errors made by management and government. No other book on the subject speaks with such clarity to both the expert and the layman. Human factors have ben called 'the last great frontier of aviation'. In The Naked Pilot, David Beaty has sought possible ways to breach it.