American airlines flight 965 from Miami to Cali, Colombia, rammed a mountainside in December 1995, killing all 159 on board. The cause: a disconnect between information and context. Air traffic controllers in Cali radioed the plane to fly toward a nearby beacon named "Rozo." From a computerized list of beacons beginning with the letter R, the crew selected the first-by convention, the nearest. But in this case, unbeknownst to the crew, the list began with "Romeo," 100 miles to the left in Bogota. The autopilot followed the faulty directions, leading to what accident investigators call "controlled flight into terrain."

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