Why did I mention the distnction between 'pilot error' and 'human error'?
Pilot error is a term developed by the media and others (notably aircraft manufacturers) to enable straightforward blaming of individual pilots in the aftermath of acidents. We don't hear of 'surgeon error', 'judge error', or 'politician error', do we?
I am unwilling to let the phrase go unchallenged here, as it whitewashes the straightforward and predictable human frailties in all of us, whether pilots or not. I'm not going to cite the many papers on this topic, though good starting points would be Simon Bennett's 'Human error-by design', and the good work on modelling human error in the flight deck accomplished over recent years by Sid Dekker et al.
If you're a pilot who uses the phrase, you're doing a great iunjustice to your fellow aviators - but it sweems that's something that some people are unusually skilled at, doesn't it?
The SSLs do set out some worthwhile, if basic, material. But if you're happy to put all accident pilots down as 'fools', then you must have concluded that they all acted foolishly and knew that they were doing so. Crucially, they didn't;
what they did made sense to them. It's unpacking that aspect of human behaviour which is key to human factors research in aviation safety, as is providing tools, both soft (such as interactive briefing) and hard (such as EGPWS), to interrupt this error path.
(By the way, as an 'expert' in my present job, I was appointed by a group of very highly experienced professionals, so there's nothing 'self-appointed' about my expertise).
