DISTRACTIONS & INTERRUPTIONS IN COCKPIT

Why do they occur??

As per Airbus Briefing notes, the following

are the main reasons identified:

·      Communications

·      Head down activity

·      Abnormal condition or unanticipated situation

When do they occur??

They occur during high workload times, such as during pre-flight preparation, taxi for takeoff, approach  preparation, during briefing prior to descent, descent, during approach, and landing phase.

How can it be addressed??

It can be addressed by robust procedures and policies and adherence to them.

During pre-flight, there is a lot of activity around the cockpit and this is the crucial time that the  interruptions due ground personnel, load and trim sheet, fuelling and techlog  activity, cabin crew coordination, passenger boarding,and so on tend to throw the crew away from the task at hand. Thrust should be on regaining the thread effectively from where it was left and pick it up. Most airline procedures advocate going back to the beginning of the checklist to resume, once the checklist is interrupted.
Crew have made errors in entering wrong load sheet data, due to distraction or interruptions, which in some cases have lead to incidents/accidents.

                     

Also, noted is the case of Eastern L1011 crash at Everglades, which was due to distraction of crew from primary task due to landing gear light bulb malfunction.

What are industry line of defense to counter this??

• ·     Company SOP
• ·     Company policy
• ·     Effective communication
• ·     Sterile cockpit below 10,000ft AAL in flight, and during ground operations
• ·     CRM

EXTERNAL WALK-AROUND

Pic of Brussels airlines

FLIGHT CREW AND CABIN CREW COMMUNICATION

Today's cabin crew are highly trained, highly skilled, and centre on safety as the core of their job function. And, just like the pilots, many have been trained in crew resource management principles. However, some recent findings have uncovered some disturbing facts about the division of responsibilities and safety issues between the cockpit (pilots) and the cabin crew (Cabin crew). The underlying goal for both the pilots and Cabin crew is the safe and efficient completion of a flight. Yet, there has been an unrelenting division of these groups in times of emergencies as well as routine operations. How could this be? As a layperson, you would assume that these groups would be highly cohesive by nature, and yet the opposite has been shown to be true.

The problem with pilot and flight attendant teamwork, particularly in the area of communications, has its roots in the disparate job functions of both groups. When speaking of pilots, it is a mostly male dominated profession. Conversely, when speaking of Cabin crew, it is a mostly female dominated profession. It should be noted, however, that there has been an increased percentage of "gender balancing" over the last few decades for both groups. Theoretically speaking, and this comes from basic innate gender characteristics, male and female thought processes could be somewhat divergent. This is not to say that there is an abundance of testosterone in the cockpit or that females may be influenced by their inherent affective nature, but the gender differences do have to be considered when groups are segregated into mostly male versus mostly female categories.

Besides gender influences, the most salient reason for division in these groups appears to lie in the division of job functions and responsibilities. The cockpit crew is separated from the cabin crew by not only physical barriers (the door), but also communicative barriers (most communication is conducted through an impersonal interphone). Until relatively recently, pilots considered the cockpit "their territory" while the Cabin crew considered the cabin "their territory." Typically, the only times that these two groups would interface was when the pilots needed to be fed, or in the event of an emergency.

"the basic problem is that these two crews represent two distinct and separate cultures, and that this separation serves to inhibit satisfactory teamwork."

Well, we have - the pilots and the Cabin crew have respect amongst one another as friends but when it comes to working as a crew, we don't work as a crew. We work as two crews. You have a front-end crew and a back-end crew, and we are looked upon as serving coffee and lunch and things like that.

By now you have seen the magnitude of the problem; two groups, two cultures, and two completely separate job functions. The pilots, who work in the small but highly complex cockpit—and the Cabin crew, who come from the service-oriented and spacious cabin—having difficulties bringing their environments closer together and working in harmony.

Pilots and Cabin crew need to understand the basic psychology of group dynamics and the positive effect that pre-flight briefings can have between groups. Many pilots and Cabin crew may have never worked together before and yet both of these groups tend to remain isolated before, during, and after a flight. Some captains are better with an introduction and a briefing than others. But overall, there tends to be a "chill in the air" during pre-flight routines.

RUNWAY INCURSION

A runway incursion is an incident where an unauthorized aircraft, vehicle or person is on a runway. This adversely affects runway safety, as it creates the risk that an airplane taking off or landing will collide with the object.  It is defined by ICAO as Any occurrence at an aerodrome involving the incorrect presence of an aircraft, vehicle, or person on the protected area of a surface designated for the landing and take-off of aircraft.

A major disaster was averted at the CSI Airport , Mumbai last year after an aircraft, which was supposed to be on the taxiway, entered the runway area, while another had been cleared to land.

These close calls between aircraft and other planes, ground vehicles and hazards have grown steadily over the years and are now a grave concern for safety officials across the world.

An effective Runway incursion prevention program should be capable of

·         Alerting the pilots to conflicting traffic in the air and on the runways, taxiways and ramps;

·         Allowing more aircraft to land safely on time in bad weather

·         Improving communication between pilots and air traffic controllers ; and

·         Virtually eliminating the world’s greatest cause of aviation fatalities – controlled flight into terrain or CFIT.

Please offer your comments experiences and suggestions.

FLIGHT PROCEDURES-- Standard Calls

   Standard Calls

Standard calls in a cockpit enhance crew coordination and ensure effective crew communication. They also serve to reduce the startle effect by conveying the approporiate information/meaning during high workload.

It also updates the situational awareness in crew, which is very essential as major accidents have been caused due to lack of situational awareness or loss of the same in operating crew.

Automation state awareness in crew increases with Standard calls and brings the crew back in loop with the current condition enhancing safety.

Have something to say on Standard Calls and their benefits??

Send in your comments.