The Humble Checklist
The Humble Checklist
In 1935 the US Army Air Corps held a competition for the next generation long range bomber; Boeing’s Model 229 was the favourite the largest and only aircraft with four engines. However, after take-off at three hundred feet the test aircraft stalled and turned on one wing before crashing in a huge explosion that killed five including the extremely experienced and expert Chief Test Pilot. The result was that Boeing lost the order to Douglas and almost went bankrupt as the Air Corps only purchased a few of the Model 229 on the recommendation of some insiders who remained convinced it was the best aircraft.
In the investigation it was found that the pilot had not released a locking mechanism for the rudder and elevator controls; with all the new technology to think about – that did not exist in the competitor’s aircraft – he had simply forgotten to flick one switch. To solve the problem the pilots still working on the Model 229 created simple index cards that had step by step checks and flew the test aircraft almost two million miles without incident. Without these checklists the B-17 Flying Fortress would never have existed as 13,000 were flown in WWII and played a decisive role in the air war; today aviation remains one of the leading exponents of checklists with iPads replacing index cards and helping aviators avoid simple mistakes in the operations of extremely complex machines.
The use of Checklists in any activity that has significant moving parts can help you avoid simple and costly mistakes; finance is no different and we rely on several to make sure we do not miss the obvious when making our assessment
