THE LOSS OF UKRAINE INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES FLIGHT PS752: A FAILURE OF RISK MANAGEMENT RATHER THAN MILITARY 'HUMAN ERROR'

摘要

On 8 January 2020, Ukraine International Airlines flight PS752 was cleared for take-off from Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport for its scheduled flight to Kiev. It departed at 06:12, almost an hour behind schedule, but it was never to reach its intended destination. The lives of 167 passengers and 9 crew members were to be extinguished when the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran fired missiles "due to human error" towards the aircraft, allegedly believing it to be an incoming US cruise missile. This was the latest military mistake to have catastrophic consequences for the aviation industry and, whilst air safety records are generally improving year on year, incompetence by armed forces has now become one of the greatest hazards for commercial aviation. And the main protagonists in the loss of PS752 will be only too aware of that. Ukraine, despite its good safety record, is, sadly, almost synonymous with the loss of aircraft due to military errors - since the turn of the century, it has been violator, venue and, now, victim.