On Time Performance, is an
Organizational culture that prioritized mission execution over aviation safety.
Passengers, indeed, need to be assured that their travel schedule will be
adhered to and delays avoided. At what cost?
History is replete with many
instances of gross violation by crew and other support staff in resorting to
shortcuts and breach of standard company procedures and protocols in the name
of On Time Performance.
The
NTSB, drawing experience from its many investigations, points out that factors
contributing to an accident often included the organization’s emphasis on mission
completion, as well as “the pilot’s fatigue, self-induced pressure to conduct
the flight and situational stress.”
Today,
Safety Management System approach is mandated by many regulators to ensure that
operators do carry out risk assessment and mitigation measures prior to
undertaking critical missions.
An operator needs to evaluate its policies to
assess the requirement of a risk assessment at any point during the mission
inter alia, inadequate pilot staffing; lack of effective fatigue management
program for pilots; and inadequate procedures and equipment.
A critical
area where safety culture has failed to penetrate is the crew scheduling team.
They have the unenviable task of assigning crew to each flight and where
staffing is a constraint, many a roster staff has developed innovative
techniques to circumvent regulatory guidelines and stipulations. Educating
these key personnel about pilot fatigue management is an essential
organizational goal. Mere compliance with guidelines of FDTL rest allocations
does not ensure safety.
If safety is
not the highest organizational priority, an organization may accomplish more
missions, but there can be a high price to pay for that success.
Excellent post. The question is, how do you change the personality of the pilot in completing the go mission? And the airlines are driven by on time performance. Sometimes I do think that is more important than anything. But equally responsible are the passengers that become irate because they might have a delay. And then the fines imposed if the flight exceeds the allowable delay. There is pressure to go all the way around. Internal. External. Financial. Emotional. This is a challenge for sure.
ReplyDeleteI am concerned about an organization that exerts pressure on the pilot to complete the mission at all costs disregarding safety. While passenger considerations rule paramount in a service industry, they also expect that they be transported safely.OTP is indeed the mainstay of an airline and on schedule performance is the top priority. But do we encourage shortcuts? Do we dispatch aircraft with deficiencies not supported by MEL? Do we encourage pilots to operate without adequate rests? In an accident on A 340, the copilot entered ZFW which was less by 100 tons by entering the first digit wrong. The cockpit was busy with engineers conducting servicing, the FA was being briefed and there were other commercial staff present in the cockpit engaged in other discussions. The pre-flight procedures were interrupted several times. The captain was interrupted while cross checking the FMC figures and subsequently failed to authenticate them. The Flex temperature was entered based on ATOW, 100 tons less than actual. The aircraft failed to get airborne on schedule and the captain selected TOGA to get the aircraft off the ground. The aircraft suffered extensive damage to the underbelly as it impacted approach lights. In another instance, the crew overlooked external walk around as maintenance action was in progress on the landing gear. Under commercial pressure, to expedite departure, the crew got airborne withthe gear pins still inserted. There has been a spate of fatal accidents in corporate aviation, where crew undertook flights in adverse conditions disregarding professional discretion and sound judgment. I am concerned with crew being forced to take shortcuts and deviate from SOPs when not accorded adequate time for pre-flight preparation. Make haste slowly , is an apt phrase that emphasizes expeditious conduct of tasks without hurrying through them.
ReplyDelete