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rebellious behavior when under stress, were poor losers, and liked to be the center of attention. [Figure 2-2]  One interpretation of this data—an adult predisposition to injury stems from childhood behavior and environment—leads to the conclusion that any pilot group should be comprised only of pilots who are safety conscious, industrious, and cooperative. Clearly, this is not only an inaccurate inference, but is impossible to achieve since pilots are drawn from the general population and exhibit all types of personality traits. 

Fifty-five years after Fuller-Baune study, Dr. Patrick R. Veillette debated the possibility of an accident prone pilot in his 2006 article “Accident-Prone Pilots,” published in Business and Commercial Aviation. Veillette uses the history of “Captain Everyman” to demonstrate how aircraft accidents are caused more by a chain of poor choices than one single 

poor choice. In the case of Captain Everyman, after a gear- up landing accident, he became involved in another accident while taxiing a Beech 58P Baron out of the ramp. Interrupted by a radio call from the dispatcher, Everyman neglected to complete the fuel cross-feed check before taking off. Everyman, who was flying solo, left the right fuel selector in the cross-feed position. Once aloft and cruising, he noticed a right roll tendency and corrected with aileron trim. He did not realize that both engines were feeding off the left wing’s tank, making the wing lighter.  [Figure 2-3] 

After two hours of flight, the right engine quit when Everyman was flying along a deep canyon gorge. While he was trying to troubleshoot the cause of the right engine’s failure, the left engine quit. Everyman landed the aircraft on a river sand bar, but it sank into ten feet of water. 

Several years later, Everyman was landing a de Havilland Twin Otter when the aircraft veered sharply to the left, departed the runway, and ran into a marsh 375 feet from the runway. The airframe and engines sustained considerable damage. Upon inspecting the wreck, accident investigators found the nosewheel steering tiller in the fully deflected position. Both the after-takeoff and before-landing checklists required the tiller to be placed in the neutral position. Everyman had overlooked this item. 

Now, is Everyman accident prone or just unlucky? Skipping details on a checklist appears to be a common theme in the preceding accidents. While most pilots have made similar mistakes, these errors were probably caught prior to a mishap due to extra margin, good warning systems, a sharp copilot, or just good luck. In an attempt to discover what makes a pilot 

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