My analysis is based on reading multiple sources of information such as U.S., European and Asian newspapers, pilot’s blogs, ground radar, and technical information on aircraft design. Since the first Boeing MAX crash in October of 2018, I have read over a hundred sources of information. When a plane stalls, the wings lose the ability to lift. If the angle becomes too steep, the plane may stall. It measures the angle that the plane is flying. It is a delicate little finger that sticks out of the side of the plane, near the cockpit. The Boeing max crashes in October 2018 and March 2019 are another example of a lack of visual thinking. When I learned how important the angle of the attack sensor, and the part it played in downing the flights, I was shocked to discover how fragile it truly is.

How Could You Trust a Single Fragile Sensor? Stupidity is not the cause of this problem. It is a lack of visual thinking. There is no way I could design a nuclear reactor. That is a job for the mathematically inclined engineer. However, the visual thinkers should be involved in designing the safety systems. A visual thinker can see different possible ways systems can break and simple ways to protect them. The electrically driven emergency cooling pump would now be underwater and drowned. Simple watertight doors would have kept vital emergency equipment dry.ĭuring my many years of working on many projects, I have learned that the mathematical mind does not see ways a system could break. When I put all the bits of information together, I see the whole picture. And when I finally put the pictures in my imagination together, I often think, “How could you make this mistake? It was so obvious.”įor the Fukushima reactor meltdown, my imagination saw water flowing over the sea wall and flooding the Fukushima site. The next scene in my mind was the plant being flooded, and the basement filling with water.

Since I spend hours sitting in planes while traveling around the world to give talks, I like to read and always purchase multiple newspapers and magazines. When I read articles about each one of these disasters, my mind starts processing everything as photographic pictures. There are some serious recent disasters that could have been avoided if a visual thinker had assessed the risks beforehand. Two vivid examples were the Fukushima nuclear reactor meltdown in 2011 and this year’s Boeing Max crashes. Let’s get back to my original opening sentence that mathematicians calculate risk and visual thinkers see risk. 2011, which wrecked cooling systems at the plant on Japan's northeast coast, sparking reactor meltdowns and radiation leaks. The Fukushima nuclear disaster was triggered by a massive earthquake and ensuing tsunami in March.

Visual thinking by temple grandin