Gosling's Grouse: Lessons from failure

The airline industry is one of the safest in the world, which always seems a fairly ironic statement given some of the air disasters that have made the news in recent years.

But the measure of safety is relative to the number of planes and miles flown annually, the number of passengers killed and aircrafts that have either crashed or been forced to land. Another reason why the industry has such a record for safety is because it is globally recognised as one where all participants seek to learn from the causes of accidents. The 'black box' of a commercial aircraft is a universally understood piece of technology, which is virtually impossible to destroy. Air authorities will carry on looking for it for years if necessary, to learn lessons from the data and ...