Why We Must Go Wrong

Safety First is a phrase most have heard throughout their career, but what impact does that have when there is an increase of safety incidents on base? Newly appointed safety officers inherit any outstanding safety challenges as well as any benchmark programs that brings safety to light. However, if the program is broken the safety officer must utilize the skills harbored within assigned personnel to make a difference for the betterment of the wing. As the new wing safety officer, I have been tasked to eradicate the trends in safety mishaps and make sure there is a process in place to prevent future occurrences. This paper will outline an

Learning from the past is something that is integrated in today’s society, especially when lessons are potentially at the cost of lives. During the moments of a potential catastrophic event, panic and fear may temporarily inhibit the motor skills of individuals faced in life dependent situations. This elementary but crucial notion is one important example of why aerospace engineers design with high safety intent.

The aviation community generally defines CFIT as "…any collision with land or water in which there was no detectable mechanical or equipment failure, where the pilot was in control of the aircraft but lost situational awareness and flew into terrain." (Bensyl, Moran, Conway, 2001, pg 1037) According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), CFIT can be caused by many factors. Nevertheless, it is primarily caused when a pilot or flight crew is unaware that a dangerous situation exists. Problems such as bad weather, information overload, instrument confusion, night flight, poor air traffic control communications, or malfunctioning ground

On 7 December 2008, 82nd ABN DIV Forward Support Company, distribution platoon was involved in a safety accident, adjudicated as operator negligence resulting in the death of a 22 year old soldier from Irvine, California. Furthermore, this tragedy was not only a failure in leadership, applicable training (i.e. certification) and wrong equipment more importantly, this challenge has prepared me for the operational unknown throughout my military career. For that reason, this formative event is deemed as my crucible experience and inspired a pendulum shift across the military, reinforcing the importance of safety mechanisms in garrison and deployed operational environment.

This paper examines the plane crash of a Cessna Citation 550 which impacted into lake Michigan shortly after takeoff. We will examine the flight crew involved, flight information, crash details, and the accident investigations about the crash. On further analyzing crashes like this one, we should have a better understanding on how CRM (crew resource management) and good flight practices can make flights safer.

Long after Leonardo da Vinci, human factors research originated with aviation (Salas et al., 2010). Once the pioneers of aviation began taking to the air, the quest for safety and efficiency began with an ever-increasing fervor. Aviation accidents have long been viewed as spectacular and with the spectacle of an accident comes the public outcry over safety. While not all human factors research deals with accidents, the majority of money put into the

Since 2000, out of all the fatal accidents aviation accidents, 75% of them were caused because of human error according to the NTSB. Human errors can occur in three different ways say Ramón L. Rivera. He states in the article, Managing Human Error, “1. A person intends to carry out an action, does so correctly, the action is appropriate, and the desired goal is achieved. No error has occurred. 2. A person intends to carry out an action, does so correctly, the action is inappropriate, and the desired goal is not achieved. An error has occurred. 3. A person intends to carry out an action, the action is appropriate, does it incorrectly, and the desired goal is not achieved. An error has occurred.” The easiest way to counter human error is through crew resource management. Crew resource management trains people to think outside the boxes and look at the problems in different ways. It takes daily procedures and show what the outcome is if certain action is taken.

New technologies and stringent regulations have contributed significantly in the reduction of Commercial Aviation (Part 121) accidents due to loss of control in flight. Several studies have been performed

The aviation industry has made great advances in improving flight safety. These successes have been obtained thanks to the improvements made in aircraft designs and systems, which consequently helped in decreasing pilot error. Although they are considered one of the great successes in the industry and safety of flight has improved significantly, however, seventy to eight percent of aircraft accidents are still caused by pilots’ error, which therefore makes it one of the most contributory factors to aircrafts’ accidents. Every airplane accident has profound consequences on many ends and is considered one of the most tragic events that can occur. Accidents deeply weigh on the minds of the family victims and they often also result in major attention from the media and the general public. When accidents occur, the pilots are the ones who are immediately thought to have caused the accident and are often held liable for it. In the history of aviation, several accidents were due to pilot error and the effects of regulations and legal implications as a result of them have been several and complicated (Dismukes, 2007).

Whether people travel for business, vacation, or simply for pleasure, they must decide on what mode of transportation to take. Sometimes, they decide that the best form of transportation is to take a plane, and each time they enter it, they are placing their lives in the hands of a company, air traffic controller, and most importantly, the flight crew. Although airplanes are the most convenient and quickest means of transportation, accidents occur due to the failure of one of these three components. Statistically, the odds of being in an airplane accident are 1 in 7,178 compared to the 1 in 98 involving cars showing that airplanes are a safer type of transportation (5 Most Common Causes of Airplane Accidents). If for some reason there is an accident, a spectrum of people are facing the repercussions due to it and should consider these before deciding on taking a flight. Airplane accidents are a horrific tragedy that affect a variety of individuals including the airline, the manufacturer of the airplane, and the families.

Despite all the precedent that supports experience acting as a risk mitigation tool, that’s not always the case with regard to automation. Automation has the ability to assist with the management of cognitive load while flying, although many studies have been completed in an attempt to understand the dynamics that certain aspects of automation have in the cockpit, and the potential it has to develop into a hazard rather than an asset (Geiselman et al., 2013).

In our career and even life itself, we find that we take certain habits and processes that once we did not have. Some of these are products of the influences other people have over us while others are discoveries from our own personal experiences and stabs in the dark. These are littered with successes but are primarily made up of failures. When something goes wrong for us or another and it could have been prevented by taking another course of action, we learn what not to do and what to do. Take Thomas Edison for example, the acclaimed inventor of the light bulb. Inventing a light bulb was not an easy task and, as can be expected, there were many failures. Nonetheless he believed that “I have not failed, I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

People do a lot of things nowadays. Experienced or inexperienced, expert or beginner. It doesn’t matter experts had the same mistakes beginners do at the beginning. It’s part of life to fall and getting back up. We are born to make mistakes and learn from our mistakes. “Experience simply is the name we give our mistakes”.

The contribution of incident and accident investigation to future safety for aviation industry is crucial to help manage risks to life, the environment, assets and business continuity in the

According to Rodrigues and Cusick (2012) humans are accountable for approximately 70-80% of aviation accidents (p.156). A majority of these are caused by the different variables associated with human performance. Psychological factors have a key role in a pilot’s everyday responsibility. Some of these traits include: perception, memory, attitude, judgment and decision making, as well as ego (Rodrigues & Cusick, 2012, p. 158-160). These qualities can have drastic effects in commercial aviation if they are not recognized and adjusted accordingly. In this paper I will respond to some questions that are raised in aviation safety: