Crew Resource Management for Pilots - Essay Example

Crew Resource Management for Pilots The ultimate importance of Crew Resource management- CRM, is to instill established procedures and technical know-how from previous experience of situational human errors in past aviation circumstances and put it in a present context so as to enable pilots and cockpit crews to better deal with similar or new situations that may arise posing eminent danger on human lives. Prevention is better than cure in any rational setting a wise English man once attested thus CRM is vested with purpose and ideology description which is to prevent the possibilities or reduce the high probabilities of these aviation accidents happening if not absolutely preventing them from ever happening. Crew Resource management is the incept of National Transport Safety Board- NTSB, in 1978 that came as an important recommendation when a plane from United Airlines flight 173 crashed as a result of fuel shortage because all the attention by the pilots and the crews was concentrated troubleshooting a landing gear glitch (Clioffi 2009, p.65). CRM henceforth became a vital toolin elimination of the happenings of such cases because it is influential in bridging the situational gap in the cockpit by instilling; competent decision making systems in the cockpit, proper interpersonal communication skills among the team members, leadership, teamwork capability and feedback response system in dealing with situational crisis mostly during flights. Bridging the communication gap between pilot and pilot, pilot and cockpit crew and pilot with the ground team is the most important aspect that a competent pilot should master so as to inculcate a culture that questions decision making from a higher authority when seeking clarity or making an additional point to the authority through proper communication this can be between the captain and the first officer. The case with the crash of a plane of United Airlines in 1978 showed poor communication lines and structure between the captain of the flight 173 and his first officer because there was a discourse in dealing with the situational approach resulting to the neglect of an obvious error due to concentrating on the particular problem of the landing gear, fuel shortage, that caused the plane to crash (Wiener, Kanki & Heimrich, 2009). It is baseless to wish for otherwise but in my humble opinion had the first officer possess proper communication skill the situation would have been different because he would have hinted about the possibility of a crash because of running short of fuel and worked on both problems rather than sitting on one while the other leading to devastating results. The first officers should be bold enough to question the decision of the captain because they are both tasked with the responsibilities of the passengers’ lives on board. Captain has the leading role but the when it comes to a situation that threatens lives of passengers both should be engaged in effective dialogue to solve the crisis competently and as fast as possible. CRM impacts proper and effective communication skills. To further analyze the importance of Crew Resource Management in aiding proper communication between the pilots and the cockpit crew in dealing with the situational awareness during flights hitches and glitches can be proved as important. Because one Captain Al Haynes of United Airlines flight 232 that crashed in July 1989, confirmed the importance of Crew Resource Management in bridging the gap between the communication structure of the highest and the lowest authority to effectively land the plane under duress that ended up saving lives (Jensn 2009, p.108). The captain admitted to have involved his entire crew on suggestions and decisions on how to deal with the difficult situation to get the plane safely on the ground. CRM breaks down the hierarchal structure of approach when addressing the higher authority especially between pilots themselves (captain and the first officer) and pilot versus flight engineers. A CRM expert came up with five step approach statement process to help the lower authority communicate effectively with higher authorities which are; the attention getter approach that entails the use of the authority’s title or name like “captain Bob” to get attention; state concern that expresses the situational awareness while suppressing emotions that might state otherwise or cause a panic reproach that is disastrous; state the problem as clearly perceived and be straight to the point to be effective in passing the message across; state a solution that the higher authority will consider as an alternative in his decision making regarding the situation and finally obtain agreement by using clauses that elicits the higher authority acceptance or recognition of the effort towards the subject matter arising, this is done from an inquisitive perspective, an example would be like “does that sound ok captain?”. Crew resource management model veto’s for the proper teamwork, communication and feedback system that enables the safety practice to be adjusted and threats to be properly evaluated. The pilots are usually trained to always give positive and negative feedback after dealing with a situational crisis experienced during a flight so as to aide other pilots by referencing the procedure that is most suitable and effective when dealing with the similar situation (LeSage, Dyar, & Evans 2010, p.88). The parties involved in ensuring a safe flight management starting from the air traffic controllers and flight engineers on the ground to the pilots and cockpit crew on the plane both rely on feedback to effectively learn from past situational crisis to better deal with future crisis in a better capacity. Weather or storm related problems are normal problem that pilots and related teams effectively deal with this is because of a positive and negative feedback system that derive proper channels of communication in dealing with the weather related problems while avoiding human error (the captain makes the only and final decision) that usually leads to catastrophic effects. Feedback mechanism involves a lot of teamwork and team spirit so as to evaluate the whole channel of communication and be able to point out the point of discourse and hence come up with proper CRM procedures in dealing with crisis effectively. Crew Resource Management puts a lot of stress on the leadership capability and decision flexibility as well because these two elements are characteristics of proper guidance by the high authority. It is mandatory that the captain is the supreme decision making body in a flight therefore meaning his decision is final but it is also mandatory that the captain attain high levels of leadership skills to be able to be trusted with the lives on board. Good leadership entails delegation to the lower authority to take part in decision making this bridges the operational gap and leads to more interaction and trust hence an effective when dealing with a situational crisis other than a higher authority that wants to rule with an “iron fist” these [particular leadership usually leads to disaster. A Canadian airline, First Air Flight 6560 crashed in 2011 as a result of rigid decision making by the captain and the neglect of trusting the delegated input of the lower authority, the first officer led to the crash (Penn 2013, p.67). The captain neglected and dismissed the call made by the first officer that the plane was off course due to failure of one of the navigations instruments, the compass. This eventually cost their lives and the lives of passengers on board as well. The Canadian airline with the recommendation of the Canadian National Travel safety board eventually called for the inception of Crew Resource Management to address the flexible decision gap between the high authorities, the captains, and lower authorities- first officers and the cockpit crew, and instill a proper communication structure that demystifies the dangerous hierarchical structure that hinders effective communication. CRM is therefore inevitable for every aviation industry player. References Cioffi, M. E., 2009. Examining Personal Error Reduction and Accountability Training Affects on Reduced Pilot Error. New York: ProQuest. Earl L. Wiener, B. G. Kanki, R. L. Heimrich., 2010. Crew Resource Management. New York: Academic Press. Jensen, R. S., 2009. Pilot Judgement and Crew Resource Management . Chicago: Gower Technical . Paul LeSage, J. Dyar, B. Evans., 2010. Crew Resource Management: Principles and Practice. New York: Jones & Bartlett Learning. Penn, R., 2013. Crew Resource Management: A Guide for Professional Pilots. New York: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform. Read More