At the dawn of each new year, we read the familiar tally of aircraft accidents from the previous year. What usually is evident, in addition to the industry’s long-term safety success, is that there are nagging issues that keep us from getting to improved levels of safety performance. Approach and landing phase of flight accidents and runway excursion and runway incursion accidents are still too common and deserve our attention. The familiar results from these tallies almost beg for something peculiar to stand out to help us significantly change course and gain better levels of success.
Well, 2020 was no normal year. Eight days into the year, we witnessed the accidental downing of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752, minutes after takeoff from Tehran Imam Khomeini International Airport, killing all 176 passengers and crew. It was a horrific and tragic example of what can go wrong around a conflict zone. Only a month later, we saw a runway excursion involving a Pegas…
