“There is no such thing as an accident. It was either designed wrong, built wrong, or used wrong. Generally, it’s used wrong.”
A. Scott Crossfield (Evans, 2013)
Astronaut and Naval Test Pilot Michael Collins (1972) explains the ethical dilemmas surrounding whistleblowers and safety reports in his autobiography, “Carrying the Fire.” Describing his experiences testing newly developed aircraft for the U.S. Navy, Astronaut Collins discusses the types of situations in which many executives would scrutinize reports of unsafe conditions with the aircraft design, insisting that, because there had not yet been an incident, the situation did not require a re-design, an endeavor that would invariably carry a financial burden. Instead, manufacturers would attempt to persuade him that a warning statement in the operations manual and on the aircraft would suffice in place of a redesign as the aviator could simply see the warning sign and adjust his or her piloting to avoid an incident.