ABSTRACT
Major aircraft accidents involving multiple fatalities are typically followed by intensive investigations to identify and address the range of factors that contributed to the event. Contemporary examples of this are the 2001 Milan Linate runway collision, mid-air collisions over the German town of Überlingen (2002) and the remote rainforests of Brazil (2006), the 2007 Yogyakarta and Congonhas-São Paulo runway overrun accidents, the 2008 crash on take-off at Madrid Barajas, and the loss of Air France Flight 447 over the Atlantic Ocean in 2009. Such events are tragic for those directly affected and provoke strong emotional reactions within the aviation community and broader society. This has included a disturbing trend in recent years towards increasing criminalization of the front-line aviation workers associated with the events.
