Classic Lecture – Into thin air & thick mud : aircraft accidents & how to survive them

A key role for the aviation medicine sector is to investigate the factors that impair our chances of safely surviving emergencies in flight. The RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine’s Head of Human Factors and Biomechanics and the principle investigator on over 130 aviation accident investigations gives a fascinating history of how we have developed our understanding of the subject before giving us his cardinal rules on surviving a crash, both for civilians and servicemen. Wg Cdr Matt Lewis MRAeS gave the Royal Aeronautical Society’s 37th Stewart Memorial Lecture on 18 March 2008. The lecture was introduced by AVM Simon Dougherty and the podcast was edited by Eur Ing Mike Stanberry FRAeS. The material and information contained in this lecture are UK Ministry of Defence © Crown copyright 2008 and the recording is the copyright of the Royal Aeronautical Society 2008.