Missed Opportunities: The Great Bear Wilderness Disaster

A small plane crash in the Montana wilderness is used as an exemplar to demonstrate how disasters escalate in organizations. Three critical mistakes are identified - a navigational error by the pilot, search and rescue in the wrong place, and the presumption by authorities of no survivors. The first mistake led to the accident itself, and the remaining two escalated the crisis in the critical period after the accident. The wilderness event is compared and contrasted with other real-world examples, in order to contribute to management learning. we discuss the importance of the emergent organization, integrating socio-technical systems and the consequences of neglecting basic employee selection and training standards. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]