Re: ASRS

Vincent Mooney (vmooney_at_rd-link.dcrs.dla.mil)
Tue, 12 Aug 97 16:57:41 cst

1. I agree that some type of trusted 3rd party must manage a military ASRS
type system.

2. Incentive? I think it pretty much HAS to lean on "altruism for a better
system" because much of what military pilots do is dangerous, and such a
system could save lives and expensive aircraft. Perhaps there is a
successful means of marketing this program. A military ASRS system could
catalog these lessons and close calls in a database that would allow various
types of trend analysis which would be useful to both the safety community
and the operational guys. What if the trusted 3rd party responsible for
collecting the incident reports were to publish a periodical that summarizes
the incident reports, cleansed of identity? I imagine such a periodical
would get much ready room attention. In the tactical fighter business,
crews are routinely experiencing close calls and lessons learned, most of
which are etched in the brains of those in the flight but never get passed
on outside the unit. In the single seat communities, the pilots may never
tell anyone. This is a tremendous loss of "tribal knowledge." Imagine how
useful Navy pilots would find the discovery of a trend through such an ASRS
system of failure to recognise the radar altimeter warning on a night
approaches to the ship. If the trend had not been recognised by the system,
many of the pilots may have thought that they were the only ones that
experienced this particular failure. With the trend identified and proper
action taken, lives and aircraft could be saved.

The vast majority of class A mishaps (fatality or total loss of aircraft) in
the F-18 community are due to controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) and
mid-air collisions. A wealth of information is probably available in
lessons learned and close calls in daily flight operations. Right now, the
lessons only get out after a mishap or a hazard report gets filed.

3. Make the military ASRS system EASY TO USE. Writing an Approach/Combat
Edge article or submitting a proper hazard report is more work than most
will trouble themselves with. 2-3 hand written sentences, however, don't
take much time. I think aircrew members would take the time to jot down
their experiences if it was easy and they knew it might help save lives and
aircraft.

4. Make the system DOD wide, not just service specific.

Conclusion: In my opinion, a confidential, easy to use, and well marketed
military ASRS system would be well received by the military aviation
community and would provide useful information which may be put to good
accident prevention use.

Vince Mooney

______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: ASRS
Author: crm-devel_at_db.erau.edu at INTERNET
Date: 7/28/97 12:28 PM

Hello Folks,

We are all familiar with the tremendous success of the Aviation Safety
Reporting System and the benefits that managers and training developers c=
an
derive from confidential incident reporting systems.

When we look at creating such a system for the military there are two
fundamental questions that, until adequately answered, virtually guarante=
e
that an ASRS or ASRS-like system for the military will not work.

1. What guarantee does the aicrew member have that the information
provided will not be used against him or his unit? There is a confidenti=
al
incident reporting system in place today within the Air Mobility Command =
of
the U.S. Air Force called "airmail". The pilot sends the completed forms=

to a military point of contact. It has not experienced the participation=

that one would hope for. I am fairly convinced that to be successful, th=
e
reports have to be sent to an independent and TRUSTED 3rd party. =

2. When the mission is over and the aircrew member has the choice of goi=
ng
home or filling out an incident report, what is the incentive for the
aircrew to fill out the report? Altruism for a better system has proven
not to be adequate incentive. The "Why should I take the time" or "What=
's
in it for me" part of the equation is much different in the military than=

in commercial aviation.

I hope the group can help generate some possibilities or share some
experiences that would allow the architects of military safety and CRM/OR=
M
systems to craft a realistic proposal for confidential incident reporting=
=2E =

The current systems for incident reporting are passive systems
(organization waits for aircrews to report). =

Assuming the trust issue in item #1 above could be addressed by using an
independent/trusted 3rd party, I wonder if the "hassle threshold" could b=
e
lowered by a trusted third party actively acquiring the incident reports.=
=

The military very successfully used the "Critical Incident Technique" to
acquire over a thousand reports from pilots who flew in Desert Storm. Dr=
=2E
Rick Siem has been exploring the usefulness of CIT in his work at Brooks
AFB. I wonder if the key to a successful incident reporting system for t=
he
military is a combination of ASRS-like trust and active acquisition of
reports using a CIT methodology?

Thanks in advance,

Vince Mancuso, Ph.D.