In high-risk industries such as aviation, the capability and reliability of technical equipment has improved. Yet as many recent aviation accidents have shown, human beings remain the weak link. To make matters worse, teamwork, the only redundancy we have to stop operational errors, often fails.

When Nadine Bienefeld was flying as a young flight attendant with Swissair in 1998, she was deeply affected by the tragic crash of Swissair 111. It was then that she decided to dedicate her professional life to helping prevent such events and to work in the field of safety, human factors and risk management. She became a safety trainer for pilots and cabin crews and went on to study Cognitive Sciences and Neuropsychology at the University of Zurich, where she found answers to her questions regarding the way people think, act and feel during extreme situations such as aircraft emergencies.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx