On Target Blog Posts

The side of Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 showing the missing door On 5 January 2024, Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 departed Portland, Oregon, on what should have been an entirely routine flight to California. The Boeing 737 MAX 9 had climbed to around 16,000 feet when passengers heard a loud bang followed by an explosive rush of air as a section of the fuselage tore away from the aircraft. As you'd expect, oxygen masks deployed and loose objects were pulled from the cabin. The f

The wreckage of ZD576. Picture: PA On the evening of 2 June 1994, an RAF Chinook HC2 helicopter took off from RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland carrying twenty-nine people. On board were the four crew and twenty-five senior intelligence personnel travelling to a conference in Inverness. Less than half an hour later the aircraft struck the Mull of Kintyre in poor weather, killing everyone on board. It remains one of the worst peacetime accidents in RAF history and, more than

F35B on board a Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier. Image courtesy of the Royal Navy, MOD. In November 2021, an F-35B Lightning sat on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth waiting to launch during operations in the Mediterranean. The pilot completed his checks, the aircraft was cleared for departure and max power was applied. Seconds later, it became apparent that max power wasn't being delivered. The aircraft struggled to accelerate, staggered into the air before immediately beginning t

The Captain and First Officer of Air India 171 On 12 June 2025, Air India Flight AI171 began what should have been a routine departure from Ahmedabad bound for London. The Boeing 787 accelerated normally, rotated at the correct speed and took off. Three seconds later, something highly unusual happened: The fuel control switches for both engines moved from RUN to CUTOFF, cutting fuel to both engines almost simultaneously. Jet engine 101: Jet engines need fuel to keep producing

The Patrick J Studdert On the evening of 29 December 2024, the towing vessel Patrick J Studdert cast off from a fuel dock on the Lower Mississippi River. It had just completed refuelling and was making the short journey back across the river to reconnect with the barges it had left moored on the opposite bank. There were five crew members on board. The captain was alone in the wheelhouse. Two crew members had just finished letting go the lines and were standing together on th

The MV Dali in the aftermath of the accident On the evening of 25 March 2024, the crew of the container ship MV Dali were dealing with an electrical problem. The vessel was alongside in Baltimore when a circuit breaker unexpectedly tripped, causing a blackout. The crew investigated the issue, restored power and carried on preparing the ship for departure. At the time, I doubt anybody gave the incident much thought. That might sound slightly odd given what happened next, but s

The Five Italians Who Died in The Maldives Five divers entered a cave system in the Maldives on the 14th May 2026 and never came back. A sixth person — a Maldivian rescue diver — died in the days after during the recovery operation. Almost immediately, the conversation online became frustratingly predictable. “They shouldn’t have been in there.” “They broke the rules.” “They were unqualified.” Maybe. However..... Those sorts of conclusions are also where learning pretty much

The wreckage of E401. Image by Ron Infantino It started with a light bulb. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was approaching Miami at night. The Lockheed L-1011 TriStar was one of the most advanced airliners of its time and the approach itself was routine. The crew lowered the landing gear and something small happened. The indicator light confirming that the nose landing gear was locked down failed to illuminate and that quickly became the focus. The crew beg

These are signals more than just individual incidents In the recent past, aviation has produced a series of events that, on the surface, appear unrelated. At LaGuardia, a fire truck and an aircraft ended up colliding on the runway. At JFK, two passenger aircraft came within 350 feet of each other before TCAS alerts forced evasive action. Over the Potomac, a regional jet and a military helicopter collided with fatal consequences. We've published blogs on all 3 of these acciden

The point of closest approach. Image courtesy of Flightradar24 Just a few weeks ago at New York's JFK Airport, two passenger jets narrowly avoided a mid-air collision when an American Airlines regional jet deviated from its approach path and flew within 350 feet of a landing Air Canada jet. Both flight crews successfully aborted their landings, triggered onboard collision avoidance alarms, and landed safely. Right up until the moment the TCAS alerts go off, everything looks u

The Air Canada Express Jet, the morning after the collision. Image courtesy of Reuters. It all starts routinely. It was March 22, 2026 and at 23:35, Air Canada Flight 8646 is cleared to land on Runway 4 at LaGuardia airport, New York. It’s on about a five-mile final on a normal descent profile. At roughly the same time, fire vehicles are responding to an unrelated emergency. Their route will take them across that same runway. They call the tower. The first call is blocked and

Image of the BlackHawk wreckage courtesy of NTSB On the evening of 29 January 2025, a regional jet on approach to Washington Ronald Reagan airport and a US Army Black Hawk helicopter collided over the Potomac River. Sixty-seven people lost their lives. Both aircraft were operating legally with crews who were trained and experienced. Air traffic control was in place and functioning. On paper, this is most definitely what a safe system is supposed to look like. However, it stil

A busy bridge This blog is sort of a sequel to the blog published a fortnight ago. If you haven't read the last blog, you can do so here . If you haven't, don't worry, you can read this one first which is aimed at explicitly discussing BRM. The Story On the evening of 5 October 2024, HMNZS Manawanui was conducting survey operations off the southern coast of Upolu, Samoa. The ship was operating in challenging conditions, in close proximity to a reef, while attempting to maint

HMNZS Manawanui sinking. Image courtesy of Tom Udall The story On the evening of 5 October 2024, HMNZS Manawanui was conducting survey operations off the southern coast of Upolu, Samoa. The conditions were far from benign. Winds were sitting at around 20–25 knots, the sea state was elevated, and the ship was operating in close proximity to a reef. This was routine work for the ship. The task was to collect hydrographic survey data in support of an upcoming international event

F-35 at RAAF TIndal. Image taken by SGT David Gibbs In August 2025, a light aircraft and a military fast jet came alarmingly close to each other over northern Australia. A Piper PA-28, part of an air race, lost electrical power while heading to Royal Australian Air Force Base Tindal. Simultaneously, two F-35s were preparing to land. Without radio communication, a transponder, or radar visibility, the PA-28 continued its approach. Both aircraft, unaware of each other, lined up

KC-135 after the accident. Image courtesy of the USAF Lessons from the KC-135 maintenance explosion In 1999, a KC-135 tanker was undergoing depot-level maintenance at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma. As part of the maintenance process, technicians needed to conduct a fuselage pressurisation test, a routine procedure designed to simulate the conditions the aircraft experiences during flight and confirm that the structure and sealing systems can safely withstand those loads.

The F-35A. Image courtesy of the USAF This post is about what happens when complexity, distraction and assumptions collide. On the night of 19 May 2020, an F-35A Lightning II was returning to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida after a routine training sortie. The landing should have been uneventful. Instead, within five seconds of touching down, the aircraft bounced, became unstable, and the pilot ejected as the F-35A departed the runway and burst into flames. The aircraft, wort

F-16C. Image courtesy of US Air Force During a routine training sortie at the end of a low-level practise intercept of a light aircraft, an F-16 entered what the pilot believed was an unrecoverable state and crashed shortly afterwards. The pilot safely ejected. What began as a manageable situation escalated rapidly. The pilot was faced with conflicting cues, time pressure, and narrowing margins. The investigation that followed did what investigations often do: it identified c

Some failures arrive slowly. We see them coming. This gives us time to think, adapt, and recover. Others arrive suddenly, at precisely the wrong moment. They compress decision-making, overwhelm cognition, and leave little margin for recovery. The accident I'm about to discuss belongs firmly in the second category. It was a routine flight with a subtle technical failure. A moment of uncertainty came together as a chain of events that destroyed a multi-million-dollar aircraft.

Sam monitoring the teams during an Interlab mission Recently, Sam and I delivered a training session for a large team. It was built around detailed discussion, rich storytelling, and two missions using the Interpersonal Skills Lab (Interlab) software to show the value of and teach briefing and debriefing. There were 36 participants in total. The energy was high and the engagement was strong. The room was buzzing, and that included us, not just the participants! The feedback w