ABSTRACT
Pilots frequently complain that too many crash investigations end up with the finger pointed at them. They think "pilot error" is too often an easy cause for crash investigators to hang on the hapless (and often deceased) pilot when the evidence for other potential causes is not readily apparent. They would urge the investigators to look harder and to consider more possibilities. Indeed, that is the dominant theme in the 1964 film, Fate is the Hunter? The problem has also been explicitly addressed in the law
to give some protection to airmen and their families against the.. .all too frequent findings of "pilot error" as the cause of an accident [which has] been abused in recent years.. .in the civil proceedings which follow aircraft accidents [by] persons who may tend to forget that it is not the purpose of accident investigation to apportion blame or liability.4
