Major accident investigations are essentially case studies. They therefore suffer from many of the limitations of case studies, in particular, the difficulties involved in trying to generalise. Some of these limitations are more perceived than real. Flyvbjerg (2001: chapter 6) has shown that there are various ways that conclusions from case studies can go beyond the particular case. But given that a major accident investigation is a case study, we need to think carefully about how such an investigation can generaten recommendations going beyond the particular case.