The Evolution of Airline Crew Resource Management - Essay Example

The ’70s is described as the darkest decade to the aviation industry. Countless deaths and many high profile airplane accidents took place (Marcellin, 2014). The ensuing investigation of United 173 and the fatal Tenerife crash on the taxi driveway gave in to a new era in aviation. A common factor was highlighted as the cause for all these accidents - Human factor. The human factor introduced Crew Resource Management (CRM) to minimize airline accidents (Federal Aviation Administration).Investigators identified human error as the accelerators of these 70s aviation accidents.

Inaccurate communication between the controllers and stringent aviation rules (clock time) as the case of KLM and Dutch air were the most ingredients of Tenerife Clash. Studies by NASA-supported the findings of the investigators listing Leadership, Team Coordination, and Decision Making as the crew errors (Marcellin, 2014).The aviation community adjusted their operations by creating an international standard to study and implement notions that eventually become the core of aviation safety. The human factor was incorporated into flight training with the focus of reducing human errors and optimizing human performance.

CRM and Human factor integration have many components including Software (Rules, SOP), Hardware (Aircraft components, design), Environment (Weather, social influences), and Liveware (human element). The liveware is the center core in modern air operation integrating directly all other factors. It is also the most error-prone and that was the sole evidence to optimize the interaction between the central human operator (Pilot Flying), the plane, and everyone in the aviation system during the performance of tasks (Marcellin, 2014).

The interactions performance and influence behavior positively and negatively. They include Leadership, Crew cooperation, coordination and communication, Teamwork and Interpersonal relation, Personality and attitude interactions. The interactions were recommended by the FAA, and ICAO, which have proven to be efficient with no such accidents being experienced after the dark 70s (Federal Aviation Administration).