4 ms·

Does anyone know what this is referring to? > We’ve engineered away what used to be the most common causes of accident

sowbug 10y ago
I'm not enough of an experienced pilot to authoritatively answer, but here's a guess at some items. * Sterile cockpit: a rule that pilots avoid any distracting activities during critical parts of flight (mostly takeoff/landing, flying around busy areas). * Crew resource management: a shocking number of major commercial accidents have involved either confusion in the cockpit or one pilot who knew something was wrong but didn't feel he/she had the authority to say something. Tenerife is a very sad example. CRM is a set of procedures that specify how concerns are brought to the PIC (pilot in command) in a way that's unlikely to make things worse. Basically, it's an escalation procedure that is recognized on both speaking/listening sides as something that needs to be paid attention to. * Checklists: Not sure if this is new, but it is completely routine in flight to consult standardized checklists for everything, whether ordinary takeoff/flight/landing or emergency situations. It's thus a lot less likely you'll make a stupid mistake in flight like running out of fuel because you forgot to switch tanks. (Actually people still run out often, but the out-of-fuel checklist includes ensuring you've remembered to switch away from the empty tank, meaning people don't crash planes with half their fuel anymore.) There is no cultural shame in consulting checklists; in fact my (limited) experience is that most pilots would question the judgment of someone who didn't use checklists. This is a bigger deal than you might think because most aircraft incidents are fundamentally attributable to human error. * Better weather technology, both for prediction and real-time assessment. Flight 1549 (the one that landed in the water with no deaths and just a couple serious injuries) is a good example of the first three. You can listen to the cockpit recording to see them all in action. When the birds hit, the pilots were already 100% focused on the critical takeoff portion of the flight -- zero distractions that could have delayed reaction time. The copilot immediately got out the POH (plane's owner's manual containing tons of checklists) and started all the restart procedures while the captain reflexively put the plane in the maximum glide position to extend range. Then right as they're lined up for the river, Sullenberger asks the copilot "Got any ideas?" While this might sound like comical desperation, it's actually good CRM in action -- after they'd tried the checklists and were in a somewhat stable descent, the captain solicited feedback from the second-in-command, just to make sure they hadn't overlooked anything else. Anyway, I'm sure my list is far from complete. Someone more knowledgeable can continue it.
- WalterBright 10y ago
  Checklists in aviation started in 1939, I think. Airplanes had gotten complicated by then and pilots would routinely forget to set things up properly for takeoff, etc. Checklists have been incredibly effective in improving safety. It's a crying shame that they are not used elsewhere, like for surgical procedures. Doctors need to give up on the idea that checklists insult their competence. Also, the health care industry could learn a great deal from the aviation industry about eliminating human error. The health care industry just wings it as far as I know, and hospital deaths due to stupid mistakes are legion.
  - andrewaylett 10y ago
    There's a movement towards checklists in healthcare, and the UK NHS is picking them up, as I understand. I'm currently reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, a surgeon. Devops shouldn't be life-or-death, but I'd still like to learn and improve.
- pricechild 10y ago
  https://www.tailstrike.com/150109.htm https://www.tailstrike.com/150109.htm has the 1549 transcript incase anybody's looking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5hRRio-E8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5hRRio-E8 has the radio audio with the CVR transcript overlaid as text.

I'm not enough of an experienced pilot to authoritatively answer, but here's a guess at some items. * Sterile cockpit: a rule that pilots avoid any distracting activities during critical parts of flight (mostly takeoff/landing, flying around busy areas). * Crew resource management: a shocking number of major commercial accidents have involved either confusion in the cockpit or one pilot who knew something was wrong but didn't feel he/she had the authority to say something. Tenerife is a very sad example. CRM is a set of procedures that specify how concerns are brought to the PIC (pilot in command) in a way that's unlikely to make things worse. Basically, it's an escalation procedure that is recognized on both speaking/listening sides as something that needs to be paid attention to. * Checklists: Not sure if this is new, but it is completely routine in flight to consult standardized checklists for everything, whether ordinary takeoff/flight/landing or emergency situations. It's thus a lot less likely you'll make a stupid mistake in flight like running out of fuel because you forgot to switch tanks. (Actually people still run out often, but the out-of-fuel checklist includes ensuring you've remembered to switch away from the empty tank, meaning people don't crash planes with half their fuel anymore.) There is no cultural shame in consulting checklists; in fact my (limited) experience is that most pilots would question the judgment of someone who didn't use checklists. This is a bigger deal than you might think because most aircraft incidents are fundamentally attributable to human error. * Better weather technology, both for prediction and real-time assessment. Flight 1549 (the one that landed in the water with no deaths and just a couple serious injuries) is a good example of the first three. You can listen to the cockpit recording to see them all in action. When the birds hit, the pilots were already 100% focused on the critical takeoff portion of the flight -- zero distractions that could have delayed reaction time. The copilot immediately got out the POH (plane's owner's manual containing tons of checklists) and started all the restart procedures while the captain reflexively put the plane in the maximum glide position to extend range. Then right as they're lined up for the river, Sullenberger asks the copilot "Got any ideas?" While this might sound like comical desperation, it's actually good CRM in action -- after they'd tried the checklists and were in a somewhat stable descent, the captain solicited feedback from the second-in-command, just to make sure they hadn't overlooked anything else. Anyway, I'm sure my list is far from complete. Someone more knowledgeable can continue it.

WalterBright 10y ago
Checklists in aviation started in 1939, I think. Airplanes had gotten complicated by then and pilots would routinely forget to set things up properly for takeoff, etc. Checklists have been incredibly effective in improving safety. It's a crying shame that they are not used elsewhere, like for surgical procedures. Doctors need to give up on the idea that checklists insult their competence. Also, the health care industry could learn a great deal from the aviation industry about eliminating human error. The health care industry just wings it as far as I know, and hospital deaths due to stupid mistakes are legion.
- andrewaylett 10y ago
  There's a movement towards checklists in healthcare, and the UK NHS is picking them up, as I understand. I'm currently reading The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande, a surgeon. Devops shouldn't be life-or-death, but I'd still like to learn and improve.
pricechild 10y ago
https://www.tailstrike.com/150109.htm https://www.tailstrike.com/150109.htm has the 1549 transcript incase anybody's looking. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5hRRio-E8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S5hRRio-E8 has the radio audio with the CVR transcript overlaid as text.