Accidents: 20-20 hindsight

Flight International runs a column a couple of times a year called 20-20 hindsight that summarizes final reports from the investigations of certain aircraft accidents and safety incidents. The column provides, in a nutshell, a good review of the causes and outcomes of accidents, and resulting recommendations for changes to rules or procedures.

This time the column looks at the Helios Airways B737-300 crash in Greece; the Challenger 600 accident at Teterboro; the fatal take-off crash of the Challenger 601 at Montrose, Colorado; the crash into terrain of a TANS B737-200 in Peru; and a close call at Manchester,UK, involving an Excel Airways B737-800 that missed trucks at the end of the runway by only 17 meters.

You know that old saying about history repeating itself... It's worth having a look at that 20-20 hindsight column as a reminder of what can go wrong and how the mistakes might have been avoided. (It's posted on the FlightGlobal.com website which, incidentally, is a very good source for current aviation news.)