One view of current investigation processes . In the USA, a recent law makes data used to support government-sponsored studies available to the public under Freedom of Information requests. It will be interesting to watch how that law is implemented. My own first experience with such a request has been greeted by delay until the final study is released. Of course, by then any damage due to inadequate or inappropriate underlying data will have been done, because corrections always get a lot less attention than the original releases.
Pity there is no peer review requirement for such research.
The March 1998 issue describes single aircraft crash for which a photograph exists showing the NTSB incorrectly described radio settings, misleading the analysis. Johnson, Ladkin and others are researching the quality of investigation reports and finding significant problems, reinforcing what others have been saying for years. Maybe, just maybe, the Rand Report will begin to bring about some badly needed changes. Only time will tell. One of them is the expectation that an incident will reoccur, and that it will be investigated and analyzed as it was previously.