Joe Lehman

I also implore you all to think before you post and check for multiple sources. Now is not the time to spread misinformation or reasons why this happened. Nobody really knows why yet, the investigation will take at least months, if not years.

We need fully funded, fully staffed transportation safety agencies in this country loaded with experts. I hope that every decision, vacancy, and safety measure is scrutinized in the coming months of investigations and risk assessments.

Again, my heart goes out to those who lost loved ones and were impacted by this tragedy. Just horrible and senseless. To follow will be months of investigations. I implore investigators and risk management professionals to look at every piece of evidence, vulnerability, and risk factor.

There are more Swiss cheese slices stacked together for flights departing and arriving at DCA due to the congested airspace and national importance of that airport. Even more Swiss cheese slices for commercial aviation and military operations. This makes the chance of risk even less likely.

Diagram showing how safety mitigation measures stack like Swiss cheese to guard from the various vulnerabilities they have as individuals.

But, with enough measures compounded together, the risk for a catastrophe is lowered.

What happened yesterday shows a failure to a system that had many sophisticated measures put in place. The chances of these measures all failing and exposing their vulnerabilities at once are next to impossible.

Over the next few days you are going to hear a lot about the “Swiss cheese” model of safety. I thought it would be worth explaining what this means as someone who has studied it.

Swiss cheese has holes, just like safety measures do. No one safety measure will prevent every single crash.

My heart goes out to the victims and those who knew and loved the victims of this tragic situation in DC. As transportation professionals, safety is our #1 concern. Just heartbreaking. Also thinking about the first responders who are putting their lives on the line recovering passengers.

Don’t really think we talk enough about how we have dedicated the last 70 years to planning and designing for one transportation mode to travel as comfortably and as fast as possible. Yet any conversation to reallocate ANY of a roadway’s space to active transportation/transit is treated as radical.