SAFETY
The recent mishaps (a Bombardier
CRJ200 double flame-out, the
transatlantic British Airways three-engined Boeing 747 flight, China
Eastern Airlines Airbus A340 tailscrape, for example), lead me
to wonder if safety is a top priority for airlines..
These events belong to the human factors field. The issue is not
the error(s) made by the crews, but their behaviours.
It is interesting to link this to the following situation. As a former
university assistant professor in psychology, I lectured and researched
human factors and aviation safety. I then joined the aviation industry
as an airline pilot. Both experiences gave me a rare profile. Since
my last company went bankrupt in 2002, I have not been able to find
job as a pilot. The most frequently given reason? I am too educated.
While airlines only base hiring on flying hours, they forget that
all accidents/incidents involve highly experienced pilots.
Safety departments are not innovative enough about training, which
must educate and convince to influence operator attitude.
The mishaps reveal a failure regarding the complete training chain:
technical, crew resource management, and so on, but this failure
is much deeper considering attitudes weren’t swayed. Moreover,
attitudes are built mainly from training, not from experience.
Frank Caron
Pellouailles, France
