Aviation Safety and Security: The Importance of Teamwork, Leadership, Creative Thinking and Active Learning

By Simon Bennett

On March 27, 1977 at Los Rodeos airport in Tenerife, 583 people were killed when two Boeing 747s collided. According to investigators, poor flight-deck teamwork contributed to the disaster. Shocked by the unprecedented loss of life the airline industry set about equipping pilots and flight engineers with teamworking skills. The industry's teamwork training programme, commonly known as Crew Resource Management (CRM), has helped make aviation one of the safest forms of transportation. CRM's migration into military aviation has helped reduce mishaps by 50% - 81%. According to academics Robyn Clay-Williams, David Greenfield, Judy Stone and Jeffrey Braithwaite, in health care CRM has helped secure "modest improvements in levels of patient safety". This monograph makes the case for teamwork training. Case studies, for example of the salvaging of a crippled DC-10 by Captain Al Haynes and his crew, show the benefits of teamworking. The monograph also promotes leadership skills: in the final analysis, every team requires a leader who can set the right example, inspire, canvass, co-ordinate, appraise and represent. Finally, the monograph makes the case for creative thinking and active learning. Teams should be crucibles for new thinking. A team whose leader encourages reflection and creativity has the potential to change the status quo for the better. Witness how Apollo 13’s Flight Director, the legendary Gene Kranz, inspired an occasionally fractious group of ground engineers (fatigue affects performance and mood) to improvise an air purifier from log-book covers, spare filters, hoses and duct-tape. Kranz’s ability to organise, lead, cajole and inspire saved the lives of the Apollo 13 astronauts. Kranz’s leadership and focus ensured his engineers realised their potential.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Libri Publishing Ltd
• Release date: Sep 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781909818699

Simon Bennett

Simon Bennett has degrees in politics and communications, and a PhD in the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge (Brunel University, Middlesex). He directs the Civil Safety and Security Unit (CSSU) at the University of Leicester. CSSU has over 300 MSc students. As a human factors consultant to the airlines and the military, Dr Bennett uses action research and participant observation (ethnography) to improve communication and teamwork. He has spent circa 1,350 hours on the flight deck, and is familiar with the Boeing 737 and 757 and Airbus A300, A319, A320 and A321. His books include Human Error - by design? (Palgrave-Macmillan), A Sociology of Commercial Flight Crew (Ashgate), Innovative Thinking in Risk, Crisis and Disaster Management (Gower) and How Pilots Live (Peter Lang).

Book preview

Aviation_safety_cover.jpg

Aviation Safety

and Security:

The Importance of Teamwork,

Leadership, Creative Thinking

and Active Learning

Dr Simon Bennett

An e-monograph from Libri Publishing

Imprint

First published in 2015 by Libri Publishing

Copyright © Simon Bennett

ISBN 978 1 909818 69 9

The right of Simon Bennett to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in any retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder for which application should be addressed in the first instance to the publishers. No liability shall be attached to the author, the copyright holder or the publishers for loss or damage of any nature suffered as a result of reliance on the reproduction of any of the contents of this publication or any errors or omissions in its contents.

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from The British Library

Design by Carnegie Publishing

Libri Publishing

Brunel House

Volunteer Way

Faringdon

Oxfordshire

SN7 7YR

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www.libripublishing.co.uk

Contents

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

PROMOTING SAFETY AND SECURITY

CONCLUSIONS

BIBLIOGRAPHY

COPYRIGHTS (all illustrations via Wikimedia Commons)

PREFACE

Through a detailed analysis of the ditching of US Airways Flight 1549 in 2009 and the 2004 degrading of Manchester Airport’s security blanket, this monograph demonstrates the importance of teamwork, leadership and creative thinking to aviation safety and security. It also makes the case for academic theory as a valuable tool for safety and security managers. During the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s the aviation industry suffered several high-profile human-factors-related disasters and near-misses. For example:

1. The 1965 United Airlines Flight 227 near-miss when the Captain’s decision to modify his First Officer’s approach into a high-altitude airfield (the Captain retarded the thrust levers) caused the aircraft to land short.

2. The 1972 G-ARPI Staines Trident crash, when poor intra-crew communication and co-operation caused the loss of the aircraft. One hundred and eighteen persons (all on board) died.

3. The 1977 Tenerife disaster when poor teamwork (both on the flight-deck and between the flight-deck and Spanish air traffic control) caused two Boeing 747 aircraft to collide. Five hundred and eighty-three passengers and crew died.

4. The 1982 Air Florida Boeing 737 collision with the Potomac River’s 14th Street Bridge near Washington National Airport, caused partly by the First Officer’s lack of assertiveness. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (1982, p.68): Had he been more assertive in stating his opinion that the take-off should be rejected, the captain might have been prompted to take positive action. Seventy-eight passengers, crew members and bystanders died.

Following extensive media reporting of these events, the aviation industry decided to improve flight-crew teamworking. Teamwork-focused training initiatives like crew resource management (CRM) have proved successful in reducing the number and severity of human-factors-related incidents and accidents. Despite setbacks like Germanwings Flight 4U9525 (where the First Officer used