ABSTRACT
It is sometimes claimed that there are no new accidents in aviation, merely the repetition of previously experienced events. If this is the case, then it follows that if people fully learned the lessons from these previous experiences then a considerable number of accidents could be avoided in the future. Indeed, the explicitly stated purpose of aircraft accident investigation is "the prevention of accidents and incidents" (ICAO, 1981, p. 12). The results of accident investigations of civil aviation accidents are generally made publicly available and in a growing number of cases can be accessed via the world wide web.
