Accidents often result from a chain of poor decisions and to prevent them, we need to learn how to break a bad link in our thinking before it’s too late. Here’s how.

By Mark Pestal

Most pilots know a majority of mishaps can be traced back to a chain of events that, if broken, would have prevented the accident from happening. No doubt some could have been prevented if the pilot had been able to press pause, or activate an airframe parachute, when the flight started going south. While most of us don’t have that option, we can pull a mental ripcord of sorts and stop a progression of poor decision-making from becoming catastrophic.

“Little time is spent trying to figure out how to break the accident chain, particularly when it involves a form of distorted decision-making.”

While most pilots are familiar with the chain-of-events explanation as to how accidents happen, little time is spent trying to figure out how to break the chain, particularly when it involves a…