Risk Management Magazine

After three deployments to Iraq, I saw a trend developing in my unit. During the last 30 days of each deployment, we had an accident. What was causing this to happen — complacency, nerves, ego or just plain bad luck?

Identifying fall hazards isn’t always easy because appearances can be deceiving, often affected by our own perceptions. For example, if you’re 6 feet tall, you’re taller than a 4-foot-high platform, which makes it easy to assume the platform isn’t a fall hazard. On the other hand, if you’re standing on that platform, you are now looking down from a height of 10 feet. If you fall, even from 4 feet, you could be seriously injured.

On the way down, I reached up and grabbed onto my little yellow handholds in the crew window. Before anyone could say anything, we were on the ground. The aircraft came down and forward for a short distance, then made a rapid turn to the left.