RE: For whom the bell tolls

Reid Fairburn (cr_king_at_seanet.com)
Thu, 14 May 1998 09:32:21 -0700 (PDT)

At 11:25 AM 5/14/98 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Just a comment on Greg's quote below, and Tony's following that.
>
>I usually agree totally with Greg's comments, but I think his quote below
>is exactly one of the problems Tony addresses so well in his piece. "An
>audience other than crewmembers" are NOT clients of the CRM
>program--beneficiaries maybe-- but definitely not clients. The biggest
>problem with the CRM Program, as I see it, is we have forgotten that our
>clients are, in fact, the aircrews. It all started when we changed
>"Cockpit" Resource Management to "Crew" Resource Management. I believe this
>change was a major reason leading to the corruption of disciples of the
>program and the subsequent looking around at the emergency medical, and
>public safety areas as potential beneficiaries of CRM. This is not to say
>that the principles don't apply in these areas, but why not let the ORMers,
>or some such other ABC program work these "clients". Our problem is that
>folks "in the cockpit" still make deadly mistakes and errors, and these are
>the folks who should be receiving dedicated CRM Training so the
>"beneficiaries" in the back can ride in peace. When was the last time a
>flight attendant crashed a jet?

======Well now, I think there is more than one side to this thought! The
pilots rely on inputs and actions of the cabin crew to help maintain the
safety of the passengers in more than one instance. How about an aborted
takeoff where the airplane runs off the runway, collapses the gear, and
catches on fire? Let's suppose the cockpit is injured or wiped out...who is
going to look after the safety of the passengers? I feel that the
coordination between the cockpit and the cabin crew has to be well planned
in advance so everyone knows what to do and when to do it without all the
prompts that may be there in normal situations. For this end, a preflight
crew coordination briefing is in order.

There is at least one case on record where a cabin attendant saved a pilots
life because she knew of the emergency exits in the cockpit and the cabin
was full of fire. She got the injured pilot out the window. She was one of
just a few cabin attendants that knew of the cockpit emergency exit
capability...had learned it at the bar.

While the cabin personnel don't crash the airplane they are very important
to help avoid the problem and take care of the passengers...a lot of
coordination is required to do the job right.

Reid Fairburn
Creative Kingdom, Inc.
cr_king_at_seanet.com
253-946-9455/4815