A reply to Graham Braithwaitešs question:
Aircraft have exploded in flight and crashed after being struck by
lightning. There have been occasions when airframe structural strength
was overpowered by meteorological phenomena (CAT, thunderstorms), at a
time when these were impossible to foresee and/or avoid. To trace the
human intervention that could have prevented these accidents - donšt
get airborne? - may stretch the Socratic method too thin.
Pilots as scapegoats? That is not my aim. In 35 years as a pilot and
instructor, I have had students, and colleagues and friends - all
people I was close enough to, to have influenced - die in avoidable
accidents. Could something I said have been of benefit to them?
Thinking it might, got me started on my book.
To finish it, I had to come to the realization that I was wrong, there
was nothing I could have said. The things people make up their own
minds on, are the most powerful influences. What I could have done was
to implant within their minds ideas they could have worked on
themselves, turned into safety factors.
You mention Professor Reason. His accident prevention (or analysis)
model depicts safety precautions as a series of barriers, the more the
better, right throughout the 'system'. The accident trajectory is a
long rod, probing for breaches in the successive defensive walls. It
gets through one, but is stopped by the next; through two, to find the
third impenetrable, and so on. It is possible to regard an individual
pilot, alone or as a member of a crew, as the last barrier, the last
line of defence.
The prescriptions in my book show pilots how they can make themselves
fitter to play such a role. It's about exercise. Physical exercise
makes a person fitter, and thus more resistant to the skill-depleting
effects of fatigue. Cognitive exercise can have the same effect.
Exercise is free, independent of the bean-counters mean handouts. You
can do it most days, most places. A lifestyle of pilot-commitment to
'flight fitness' will improve safety factors.
Which begins to answer Greg Deenšs point:
The vast majority of pilots begin training in an environment dedicated
to sending them solo. Get off on your own, do it by yourself, be
independent, be an individual. These early hours are when the learner
is at his or her most impressionable. Habits adopted then are deeply
implanted and will stay for life. (They may be latent, and not pop up
till least needed.) This is the time to put in place the good
routines, like continuing self-appraisal.
When he was Mayor of New York City, Ed Koch used to walk around asking
people, 'How'm I doing?' I think pilots should do that. Start as a
trainee, and keep on doing it as you move on to flying as a member of
a crew. Inculcating practices like that, from the beginning, for me,
is where HFRM becomes indistinguishable from CRM.
And yes, there may be too much focus on pilots. There is a 'team' that
supports every flight, including engineers, air controllers,
dispatchers, loaders, families, schedulers, and so on. True
professionalism in aviation will not have been attained until all
players are integrated and operating as a single entity. Pilots who
have succeeded with their self-assesment will understand and accept
that.
Doug