Air Safety Investigation: The Journey

Reviewed by Jennifer Serne, Associate Professor, Central Washington University on 2/26/26

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

For a text short in length, it covers quite a bit of the investigative process- in my opinion, enough for a survey course in investigatory practices. The primary area where I see room for expansion is the discussion of incident analysis methodologies as the only ones covered are very basic RCA techniques such as 5 whys and event trees.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I did not find any glaring inaccuracies in the text. The information appears to be evidence based and is backed by ICAO Annex 13 principals, a well established international standard for aviation incident investigation.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

References to ICAO Annex 13 are from the 2020 version. This annex was updated in 2024, with the most substantial change impacting investigatory methodologies being the increased emphasis of barrier analysis. Overall, as in expert in accident investigation methods and models, the practices briefly covered in this text represent linear methods. Industry has been transitioning to complex, nonlinear models of analysis and causation, so in that regard, the text is somewhat behind the times. Other references are somewhat outdated, for example Wood & Sweginnis. The 2006 edition is a standard text for aviation education on this topic, but the edition cited in this text is from 1995.

Clarity rating: 5

The text was primarily written in lay language. Acronyms were well defined. I found that even students with no aviation background were able to understand the majority of material. Although aviation students were better able to connect with the aviation based case studies, I appreciate the use of simple language such as "engine" as opposed to "turbofan" in the case studies as it allowed all students to have a base understanding of the scenarios, even with no aviation industry experience.

Consistency rating: 5

The text used standard terminology for the aviation industry, it felt congruent throughout. The text also followed a consistent format throughout, with case studies delineated clearly, a Greek myth opening each chapter, and each chapter ending with a knowledge check.

Modularity rating: 4

In general, each section did not contain many references to previous chapters or information contained in earlier sections of the text. I feel the text would be easy to break into sections and assign in any order. I taught a lesson on forming conclusions based on only two sections of the text and did not run into any instance where a student would have needed to refer to earlier chapters to make sense of the material.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The text also followed a defined format throughout, with case studies delineated clearly, a Greek myth opening each chapter, and each chapter ending with a knowledge check. The topics it covered followed a logical progression from the start of an investigation, through collecting evidence, drawing conclusions, and ending with making recommendations.

Interface rating: 5

I did not experience any issues with navigating from one section to another, viewing images, or any other interface issues when interacting with the PDF or online version of the text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

Overall, the text appeared to be well edited. I caught only one or two minor grammatical errors. Although there were some passages that felt awkward, this is likely a stylistic choice of the author.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

Aviation uses a relatively universal language. I did not find any cultural issues with the text. My student population is very diverse and students brought no issues related to inclusion to my attention.

Although not comprehensive, this book serves as a good companion text for anyone interested in aviation accident investigation. I especially appreciated the inclusion of information related to investigator bias and the importance of avioding blame throughout the process.