AN ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENT PRONENESS IN THE FIGHTER PILOT

The purpose of this research is to identify those fighter pilots who have a higher risk of being involved in aircraft accidents. We are interested in showing null hypotheses between accident proneness, and life change units and personality differences, based upon deviance theory and the middle-range theory of Merton. Blood pressure readings are also examined for relevancy. Results indicated that 81 percent of the fighter pilots were correctly identified as accident prone; 96 percent of the pilots were correctly identified as having had aircraft accidents, injury, or illness. In retrospect, if this test had been administered to F-4 fighter pilots over the last 20 years, 71 pilots would have been correctly identified as accident prone before they committed an aircraft accident. If these pilots had been rehabilitated or prevented from flying, as much as half a billion dollars could have been saved in addition to the prevention of injury and loss of life. This test could be applied to other pilots, car accidents, industrial accidents, accidents in the home, etc. The results may differ depending upon the type of accident being investigated, but the principle method of analysis should remain the same.