I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, and many have reflected character flaws of which I’m ashamed: rashness of temper, lack of self-control, etc. One of the nice things about working in management at my company is that I never have the opportunity to err in such a way as to kill others.
The pilot of the above B-52 was reckless and had repeatedly demonstrated a lack of discipline that bordered on lunacy: his commander, after asking that he be barred from flying and being denied, insisted on flying with him on all flights so that, should any of his men’s lives be endangered, his would be as well.
There is extraordinary video of this crash here, and the story is here. Apologies to those sensitive to this sort of thing; I am obsessed both with plane crashes and with hubris and error. I also find the organizational questions raised interesting: when is a maverick dangerous? How can we reduce the fallibility of the chain of command?
