Cognitive dissonance
Try looking it up. It goes like this.
Pilots are human and make mistakes. I am a pilot. If I make a mistake people will die. Including me. That cant be right. >> Denial >> pilots are always right and never make mistakes....
Simple psychology. But if this is you, then don't fly. Its pretty unhealrhy.
Air travel is pretty safe these days, thanks to a combination of pilots (better and worse) and computers (more reliable than many pilots).
Air Asia captain... pulls the circuit breakers on the flight computer... FlyDubai, 12 seconds nose down trim (just ease off on the thrust, dude), KLM no clearance to take off. Pilots make errors, one could list hundreds if not thousands.
This guy made a mistake and thankfully got away with it. I care little what the report will say...