Customer Reviews

Naked Pilot: The Human Factor in Aircraft Accidents

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a well-researched book on how human factors affect aviation workers. It's not restricted to pilots. Maintenance workers, management, politicians, manufacturers are all affected by the psychological factors detailed in the book. Many of the concepts occur in everyday life to everyone. There were several times when the author talks about concepts like laterality which happened to me personally, even if I've never been involved in aviation work.

Highly recommended.

This is the best book on human factors by far. Most books of this genera tend to put you asleep. Well written and researched. As each human factor is explored -several accidents are then reviewed and shown how the factors played a roll in the final outcome. For those who fly this is a must have -read it and live it.

Great title - shame about the cover. Indeed, the content is about as horrible as the prospect of a pilot with no clothes on. However, this is no crew-hotel kiss and tell story, it's about accidents. Airliner disasters have proved a profitable publishing topic over the years and David Beaty pulls no punches with both cockpit crew and management in exposing thinking patterns behind a number of well-known airliner crashes. For example, airlines become extremely agitated at the mere suggestion that pilots enjoy a drink or three, yet the American pilot of a Japanese Airlines cargo boarded his DC-8 blind drunk and predictably ended up in a mass of flames and wreckage not far from his takeoff point. In a true spirit of flightdeck denial, his colleagues who were at the bar at the same time said they hadn't seen him drink a thing. However, witnesses not known to him personally spoke otherwise. The entire crew were wiped out. David Beaty manages to avoid the mundane implications ! of Cockpit Resource Management cliché and has produced a great read that will entertain both ATP's and PPL's. Excellent.

A very thought-provoking look at the aviation business, with new perspectives on old ideas. These new insights give much cause for thought, and should not lightly be ignored by anybody working in the aviation business. The main slant of the book is about the human involved, and considers aspects that affect the human (in the cockpit).

thoughtful and well-researched insights into psychology affecting pilots and the accidents they are involved in. I devoured the book. Well-written.

The "Naked Pilot' is a well researched and well written book on human factors in aviation. It is very interesting to read and very educative on the topical subject of human factors. As a practitioner in the aviation industry, I found the ideas in the book very useful particularly the insights into latent predisposing to errors by managers and supervisors as well as the government.

The author clearly explains that aircraft accidents are rarely the result of one single mistake say by a pilot, but rather a chain of events involving several parties such as airline management, aircraft designers, maintenance personnel, air traffic controllers, among others. The author explains that investigations into aircraft accidents should shift from the traditional focus on what happened and who is to blame and rather address the question "why" it happened.

The book is essential reading for all stakeholders of the aviation industry as the insights it provides should help to reduce airline accidents. I particularly liked the insights into behavioural issues such as how the mind works under stress.

The book is written in a simple and easy to follow style making it understandable to both layman and experts alike.

The book contains many facts about many crashes but I would say there is very little careful analysis. If you are intertested mainly in 3-sentence descriptions of significant crashes, then this may satisfy you, but already being familar with many of these crashes I woas looking for a deeper ananlysis of the human factor involved in them.

The author describes for example, the 1990 Avianca crash with these 2 lines: "The South American pilot reported being short of fuel, but did not use standard R/T phraseology and did not declare an emergency. Eventually cleared he missed his approach, went round again, ran out of fuel and crashed". This was a wholly disatisfying description to me and involved almost no analysts of the exact nature of the failure in communication-- oddly absent since this was in a chapter entiteld "Communication". This kind of incomplete analystis persists throughout the book.

Having read the transcript of the conversation preceding that crash, it is actually extremely interesting that the first officer and captain seemed to be aware they were in danger but struggled with being "impolite" and emphasizing that fact to the air traffic controller. An examination of the difference in culture and language that caused them to use such restrained language under such dire circumstances, in my opinon, was warranted and would have made for a much more interesting and meaningful read.

If, however, you just want a few basic facts about many fatal crashes, then you wont be disappointed.

I found the book one of the most interesting page turners ever and read it a second time right after the first. My only reservation is related with some of the comments concerning the shipping industry which are just about out of date so to speak and need to be slightly revised. I come from a seafaring career, followed by long safety and training-related shore positions with very respectable ship managing companies and am a holder of a JAR-FCL PPL(A) so I feel I can be allowed a little credit to a humble opinion. A word of warning: Read the book even if you might never want to fly again after that.

I was excited to read this book because I had at last found someone who was able to identify and discuss behavioural phenomena that I had noticed about myself while engaged in stressful outdoor activities: i.e. diving, flying or skydiving. I used to think it was only me and was not even aware of, for example, the word "laterality" until I read Beaty's book. I think his analysis of air accidents has wider applications in any field of human endeavour. By reflecting and becoming more aware of how we respond under stress we can achieve more through scientific analysis. One thing I found puzzling is why Beaty made no reference in the bibliography or text to another well-known book on the subject. I refer to Pilot Error, edited by the late Ronald Hurst. Was it because Beaty objects to the term "pilot error", or was it because Hurst does not refer to Beaty's work in his book? Is there some kind of professional rivalry involved or does Beaty refuse to acknowledge Hurst's contribution because he was not a pilot? There's something going on there and I'm curious to know what it is.

I had read many accidents from books,via internet for my search about human factors.Fortunately,i had bought "The Naked Pilot". This book let me see my own mistakes in front of my mental mirror, as a fixed and rotary wing pilot. Although,the front cover depicts an A300 cockpit, i really think that all pilots(including lighter than air,glider pilots) should read the book. You probably do not have as many systems as B-747-400 or Tristar,but you are still human and fallible.I like to echo the title of my review again: Thank You Mr.David Beaty for conducting your knowledge and experience to us.