In this episode, we have a special guest: Nuno Aghdassi, an esteemed investigator from GPIAAF, the Portuguese Office for the Prevention and Investigation of Accidents. Aghdassi shares his remarkable journey into the field, reflecting on the evolution of accident investigations over the years. We talk about the initial stages of an investigation and discuss the pros and cons of flight data and ATC recordings being publicly available. From the initial stages of an investigation to navigating...

The accident of Rescue 116 is tragic in many ways. On a dark and rainy night, the helicopter and its crew were on a mission to assist in airlifting an injured seaman off a fishing vessel when they collided with terrain. Once again, we go beyond the immediate and obvious reasons for the accident and take a long, hard look at the organisational factors, including the overall safety management. Why wasn't any terrain shown on the crew's maps? Why didn't the EGPWS any warnings? And why was Rescue...

In the second part of our Meditation of Automation, we take a look at the practical aspects of automation. Artificial intelligence is progressing at a staggering pace – but does that equate to automation being smart enough to replace human pilots? To answer that question, we are going to review some of the practical challenges that fully autonomous aircraft and single-pilot airliner would face.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/essenceofsafety/message

In March 2018, one of Uber ATG's self-driving test cars slammed into a pedestrian. Who is responsible for the accident: The pedestrian? The driver? The software? Or someone no-one suspected? In this episode, which is the first part of a two-part series on automation, we take a look at the 2018 Uber ATG accident in Tempe, Arizona, and use it as a starting point to discuss the role of automation. Automation has made us safer, there is no doubt about that. But if we add even more automation,...

In 2011, the RAF's famous display team Red Arrows lost two pilots in accidents. The second accident occured when the pilot inadvertently activated the ejection seat while preparing the aircraft. Was it really an isolated accident, a mishap that has no connection to the team? This episode reviews the accident, diving deeper into the organizational issues. We are going to talk about how team culture may influence individual team members, and how the pilot's demise may be due to his team getting...

In 2018, a Ju-Air Junkers Ju52 crashed while on a sightseeing flight in the Swiss Alps. The investigation uncovered that the pilots had inadvertently stalled the aircraft and that there was too little altitude left for them to recover from the stall. But what the investigators also found were severe issues with how the aircraft were maintained and how flights were conducted. Could it be that many turned a blind eye so that this epic aircraft could continue flying? --- Send in a voice...

Welcome to the Essence of Safety! Hosted by airline pilot and safety investigator Nicolaus Dmoch, the Essence of Safety podcast takes deep dives into accidents to uncover the real, underlying causes. In the first season, we are going to look at the accidents of a Ju-Air Junkers Ju-52 in the Swiss Alps, a deadly, inadvertent activation of an ejection seat that killed one of the pilots of the famous Red Arrows aerobatics team, and the accident of Rescue 116, an Irish helicopter that was lost...