Applying Lessons Learned from Accidents

Chronology of an Accident

Chronology of an accident is also known as "story telling." It is the reenactment of a situation based on a chronological series of events. Engineers use the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) and flight data recorder to establish the sequence of critical events. An example of the information from a CVR is shown below. You will learn more about this particular accident later in this course.

Using this tool is a common and intuitive way to understand and describe what happened. Although effective, it is insufficient for analyzing and understanding all of the causes. If causes are missed, solutions may be ineffective.

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Graphic depiction of the radar altitude data from Alaska Airlines Flight 261, MD-83 crash near Point Mugu, California. Depicts the altitude from the first event through the final descent from 17,800 feet. Select excerpts from the cockpit voice recorder are also included.