Following the loss of the RAF Nimrod aircraft XV230 in 2006, with the lives of all 14 service personnel on board, Charles Haddon-Cave QC was commissioned to write an independent report. One of his recommendations for a new safety culture in the Ministry of Defence was that there should be briefings for all those in Leadership positions of the lessons to be learned from the loss of Challenger, Columbia, Nimrod XV230 and other major accidents.
Haddon-Cave pointed out uncanny, and worrying, parallels between the organisational causes of the loss of Nimrod XV230 and the organisational causes of the loss of the NASA Space Shuttle ‘Columbia’, stating that the report of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board should be required reading for anyone involved in aviation safety. He also noted further parallels with other catastrophic accidents such as the Zebrugge Disaster, King’s Cross Fire, The Marchioness, and BP Texas City.
NASA's C. Michael Holloway and the University of Glasgow's Prof Chris Johnson also encourage all system safety professionals to read accident reports. They argue that regularly reading accident reports is likely to give four key benefits: an improved ability to separate myths from reality, an increased understanding of the consequences of unlikely events, a greater recognition of the limits of mathematical models and guidance on potentially relevant research directions.
Why not get started now?
Here are links to the official reports from a number of the major accidents that have shaped thinking about safety over recent years: