Risk Management Magazine

Aviators need to be willing and able to deviate from any plan when conditions change. My unit conducted a thorough after-action review to discuss the mission and what my pilot and I jokingly referred to as our “traumatic training event.”

“Go-around! Go-around! Go-around!” Those were the words we wished we heard before our stabilator struck the ground. This mishap could have been prevented, and we’re lucky it didn’t cause severe damage to the aircraft or injuries to the crew.

During one deployment, I was part of an aircrew that, upon landing, discovered an open and damaged engine nacelle. My first reaction was how the nacelle latch could fail in flight because I always check them during my walk-around. I asked myself, “I did check them this time, right?”