Oops! Why Things Go Wrong

Niall Downey – a cardio-thoracic surgeon who retrained to become a commercial airline pilot – uses his expertise in medicine and aviation to explore the critical issue of managing human error.

Capt. Niall Downey FRCSI attended St. Columb’s College in Derry and qualified as a doctor from Trinity College, Dublin. After twelve years of medical training, Niall decided to change course and retrained as an airline pilot with Aer Lingus, initially combining aviation with medicine by working as an Accident & Emergency doctor before focusing full-time on aviation. He currently operates on Aer Lingus’ Airbus A330 fleet flying on their Transatlantic network. Niall provides courses and speaks at major conferences on the topic of error management, in particular how it relates to the healthcare industry. He lives with his family in Newry in Northern Ireland.