His research particularly examines how safety incidents and disruptive events are analysed and learnt from, and how organisational and regulatory systems can be designed to support adaptation and improvement. Carl’s 2014 book, Close Calls, examines the work of airline flight safety investigators and the practical work that is involved in learning from ‘near-miss’ incidents. More recently, Carl’s work has led to the establishment in England of the first national safety investigation body for healthcare, the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB).