See How It Flies (2014) | Hacker News Reader

See How It Flies (2014)

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41 pointsTomte6 comments

Chapter 21.4:

> Let’s ask what “caused” this accident.

> Did they crash “because” they made a wrong turn?

I know of one occasion where the pilots actually made a wrong turn in the commonly used sense.

In 1991, a film crew wanted to shoot some scenes in a DC-3A flying from Frankfurt to Basel. The plane started in Frankfurt with 32 people on board, in bad weather, and wanted the follow the (flat and straight) Rhine valley in relatively low altitude. When they reached Mannheim, where the Neckar river flows into the Rhine, the co-pilot mistook the Neckar for the Rhine, and started following the Neckar, which meanders through a low mountain range there. When the captain realized the co-pilot's mistake, it was too late. The plane crashed into a mountain (the Hohe Nistler) near Heidelberg, killing 28 [0].

The film crew was in the cockpit the entire time, filming a fake-interview with the pilot. The entire flight until the moment where the captain realized something was terribly wrong was therefore caught on camera [1, couldn't find a longer segment], including an unfortunate incident where the director asks the co-pilot whether "that's the Rhine down there", which the co-pilot answers in the affirmative, although you can clearly see a Neckar weir near Heidelberg.

[0] https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flugunfall_am_Hohen_Nistler

[1] https://youtu.be/he4xHpDWIuY?t=115

My instructor always told me that from the air, one body of water looks much like another.

I didn't read the referenced part of RTFA but I'm assuming it is something about swiss-cheese model of accidents. And the example you provided does seem to fit perfectly as the distraction of the filming of the flight crew and the fact that a number of windows were blocked or partially blocked in the cockpit to help with lighting were certainly contributing factors. It wasn't just because they made a wrong turn.

Accidents where wrong turns are contributing or even principal factors aren't that uncommon.

Interesting document with some attitude. Chapter 21 seems applicable to much more than just flying. It has some good advice for decision making in general.

There was some Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM) in studying for my Part 107 cert. I can’t say that it’s terribly useful for flying drones, but it does have some useful ways for identifying and thinking about risks in longer drives. That includes big ones like weather or mundane ones like “passengers need to pee.”

People who are good at simulator dogfighting frequently discuss the situation or maneuvers in terms of mechanical energy. That always struck me as such an intuitively useful way to look at things -- great to see a long document that starts there!

Although I think it will be many years until I can afford and/or risk flying small aircraft, this will let me dream for a bit!

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