‘Recovery!’ came the shout from the back seat of my Tornado GR4 combat jet but it wasn’t necessary – I had already started to yank back on the control as hard as I could!

Our 25 tonne fuel laden bomber was now a treacherous 40 degrees nose down and shuddering madly as the airflow violently separated from the wing due to my impossible demands.

As we broke through the base of the cloud, my Head Up Display was suddenly filled with a sickening amount of earth and fields.

This was bad.

The Ground Proximity Warning System sounded.

‘Woop, Woop! – Pull Up, Pull Up!’

‘7,6,5 – that’s 400 ft Tim!’, called my Weapons System Officer.

We were well outside ejection seat parameters and we both knew it.

How had I got us into this mess?

Stop.

Yes, sometimes you just have to stop.

And that can be very hard indeed, especially when you have been doing something for so long that it has become routine.

For most of us it might be societal addictions such as smoking, drinking, drugs, gambling – things that have now become normal in your life but aren’t doing you any good.

For others it might be work habits or just ‘things you do’ that, over time, have become routine and are now hard to change.

Sometimes, though, it can be a lot worse.

I recently learnt of a flying accident that so appalled my colleagues and I that it generated a discussion about if sometimes, what is described as an ‘accident’, should actually be defined as something that was more intentional.

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