ABSTRACT
The first is the complexity of modern aircraft. Design has been improved, redundancies within systems have multiplied and automation has been used in order to prevent human error. The result of this trend is more complex systems where it is proving harder to spot mistakes in design, construction and maintenance prior to an accident. Some now argue that all that is occurring is that the mistakes which used to be made by the pilots are now made at the design stage. Mistakes are still made that cause accidents, it is just that they now take place within a different discipline. The term accident is likely to be rejected by many; for example, the subtitle to a book by Gerstein is "why accidents are rarely accidental". The impression given by many writers on accidents is that finding the cause of an accident means that an organization should prevent the next one.
