Sifting through NTSB archives has long been one of my interests. This is partly from a career of aviation weather forecasting and partly from crossing paths with Macarthur Job’s legendary Air Disaster book series that went beyond sensationalism, into the engineering and cockpit management aspects of important accidents. (Sadly, Mr. Job recently passed away.)
In that spirit, let’s examine a couple of noteworthy accidents using some of the highest caliber weather products available to meteorologists. Using these tools, we’ll try to figure out where things went wrong. Unfortunately, today’s tools and the expertise behind them weren’t available to the pilots involved in the accidents. But we can use this knowledge to find lessons that can be learned for pilots who might someday find themselves immersed in similar predicaments.
