Risk Management Magazine

Here’s a quiz: Which four-wheeled vehicle is among the toughest, hardest-working and has, at times, a center of gravity several feet off the ground? If you guessed monster truck, you’d be wrong. The correct answer is forklift.

Typically, mishaps are the result of many contributing factors rather than a single event. If any link in the chain is broken, the scenario changes and the mishap can be avoided. This is not just an aviation safety officer’s words from a PowerPoint presentation. It’s a fact.

I don’t know why it took such a tragedy to confirm what our superiors had been telling us about wearing our Kevlar and seat belts. That accident changed the unit’s whole attitude. Our sergeant’s old war stories were now our reality. We finally got it, but we learned our lesson the hard way.