The Checklist Paradox: Why the Simplest Tool Is the Hardest to Use — Hank's Classroom

← Back to Hank's Classroom

In the news — August 2026. The FAA proposed scrapping the 64-item medical kit checklist for airliners, replacing it with a general requirement to cover nine specific emergencies. After analyzing tens of thousands of in-flight medical events, they found the long checklist was causing departure delays — while most actual emergencies needed only basic supplies. A 64-item list nobody can efficiently verify isn't a safety tool. It's a delay generator.

What happened

On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines Flight 255 — a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 — crashed on takeoff from Detroit. 156 people aboard were killed; a 4-year-old girl was the sole survivor.

The NTSB found the cause bluntly: the crew never extended the flaps and slats for takeoff. They had skipped the taxi checklist that would have caught it. The takeoff configuration warning — the backup — also failed to sound due to a loss of electrical power. (NTSB Aircraft Accident Report AAR-88/05.)

Two pilots. A routine departure. A checklist that takes 30 seconds. 156 lives.

Why smart people skip checklists

This wasn't incompetence. It was human factors — the same ones operating in every cockpit, hangar, and dispatch office today:

"I know this by heart." Experience breeds confidence, and confidence quietly replaces verification. The more routine the task, the less the brain feels it needs the list.
Interruption. A radio call, a cabin question, a last-minute change — the checklist gets set down mid-way and never picked back up. An interrupted checklist is rarely resumed where it stopped.
Time pressure. Turnarounds, slot times, waiting passengers. The checklist feels like the one thing that can be "sped up."
Bad design. A checklist that's too long, poorly ordered, or written for the manual instead of the moment invites workarounds. The FAA's 64-item medical kit is the textbook example — people don't skip good checklists; they skip annoying ones.

The uncomfortable truth: checklists don't fail because people are careless. They fail because they're designed for ideal conditions and used in real ones.

Hank's Take

Stop asking "why didn't they use the checklist?" Start asking "what made skipping it feel reasonable at the time?" That's where the fix lives — in the design, the culture, and the workflow around the list, not in blaming the person who skipped a line.

Your move — one minute

Pull your most-used checklist. Read it as if you've never seen it before. Is every item in the order you actually do it? Can each step be verified, not just remembered? If not, the checklist isn't protecting you — it's just paperwork.

Want the full lesson?

Hank's Classroom is the appetizer. Our live training programs go deep — 16 to 24 hours, built around your operation.

Browse Training Programs