Plain English Meaning
It is the older, simpler way of investigating accidents: figure out what went wrong and put it in a category like 'pilot error' or 'engine failure.' It tells you what happened, but not why the bigger system allowed it to happen.
Full Definition
A method of classifying aviation accidents by sorting their causes into broad categories such as pilot error, mechanical failure, weather, or environmental factors. This approach focuses on identifying what failed and assigning each contributing cause to a labeled category, rather than examining the deeper organizational, human-factors, or systemic conditions that produced the failure.
Context Anchor
Seen in the Aviation Instructor’s Handbook when discussing how accident causes have traditionally been studied and why instructors should also teach pilots to manage risk before an accident happens.