B/CA Show News - NBAA 2007 Day 1 - (Page 70) N BA A 2007 Bombardier’s First European Safety Standdown Bombardier’s first European Safety Standdown him he was missing a wing, why didn’t he eject? Dr. Tony Kern, until recently the National Aviwas an emotional roller-coaster; by the end of the day we felt we’d been put through the wringer. ation Director for the U.S. Forest Service, hamGoodness knows how the audience feels after the mered home the professional airmanship angle. He showed a B-52 bomber crash. According to annual three-day event in the U.S. Captain Bob Agostino, director of flight oper- Kern, the pilot, although excellent earlier in his ations at Bombardier Business Aircraft and creator career, became notorious for his spectacular low of the Safety Standdown, described its aims: “It’s flying, and some of his crew refused to fly with him. designed to make every pilot more aware, and His superiors still allowed him to demonstrate at therefore safer, by exposing them to information an air show, where he crashed, killing the whole that is critical for safe flight.” It aims to provide in- crew. If you see something really stupid in the cockformation and training related to human per- pit, then report it, and make sure it’s acted upon. Sleep expert Dr. Mark Rosekind has consulted formance and is designed to change the way a pilot on NASA’s Mission to Mars program. “We live in thinks about safety. This daylong event, just after EBACE, was a a 24-hour world, but we are not built for it; there collection of lively no-lectern presentations, with speakers miked up among the audience. Bob Agostino told a classic quote from Yuri Gagarin: “It is better to be wrong too soon than right too late.” The message was that eight out of 10 aircraft accidents are caused by human failure. Aircraft certification has become tougher, but pilot error rates are virtually unchanged. “Motivation determines what you do, and attitude determines how well you do it. We need to change our attitudes and behaviors so that we can improve our situational awareness and judgment,” Agostino said. He illustrated this with some hazardous attitudes. The anti-authority captain: “No one tells me what to Gene Cernan with Bombardier operations chief Bob Agostino. do”; the macho captain: “Watch this!”; and the hyper-ego variant: “I’d rather die than is a clock in your head and you’re hard-wired for it,” he said. look bad.” Rosekind says that losing two hours of sleep is Corporate business aviation had 60 fatalities in 19 accidents from 2002 through 2005: 50% on the equivalent of drinking two to three 12-oz. landing, 15% on takeoff, 12% on approach and beers. Both the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe and 15% en route; 78% were found to be caused by the Exxon Valdez disaster were due to reduced efficiency caused by sleep deprivation. pilot/crew error. Dr. Jerry Berlin, a consulting aviation psycholFrom the “outer marker to the landing,” about 4% of the flight time, represented up to 62% of ogist, talked about psychology in the cockpit. His the hull losses. Surprisingly, the Approach/Land- movie showed a self-important captain bossing his ing Accident (ALA) facts were eight times higher way to his seat and being rude to the new-boy enfor freight, ferry and positioning flights (without gineer. Quotes such as, “I was flying before you passengers) than the rate for passenger flights. In were born,” and “Are you straight out of training?” 75% of the ALA accidents, a precision approach led to bad interaction between the crew members, which was hilarious and bizarre. Berlin calmly aid was not available or not used. Chilling stuff! To illustrate that true airmanship is alive and walked among us and said, “Statistically, 20% of well, he showed a F-15 military jet that had suf- you in this room are like that captain!” A harrowing tape brought home good buddy fered a mid-air collision. The pilot was so busy flying the damaged aircraft, he either didn’t hear, or piloting. It started with a Beech 200 captain calldidn’t want to hear, what his navigator was saying. ing ATC for help at night, as his aircraft had draWhen he landed the aircraft, he was amazed it had matically lost 10,000 ft in just a few minutes. He only one wing. If the navigator was trying to tell sounded disoriented and fighting to get his aircraft 70 straight and level. The controller did his best to keep the pilot calm but couldn’t really help, apart from giving him height and heading. In the pin-quiet conference room we held our breath and waited for the controller to lose contact. Then, the captain of a Delta airliner called on the frequency and started talking calmly to the scared pilot. “Have you got electric trim?” he asked. “Affirmative,” came the reply. “OK, trim the aircraft out, then get that ball centered,” came back Delta. The Beech pilot feared he was disoriented and asked for a heading to get him out of cloud. The controller vectored him toward the nearest airport. Delta told him to make his turns very gentle. ATC reassured him that he need not change Jerry Berlin addressed cockpit psychology. frequencies and that he could choose either of the two parallel runways to land on. The calm voice of the Delta pilot was heard talking him down until he was on finals. Then the tape ran out, and we sat stunned—did he survive? “Yes, he did,” Berlin said. Feeling completely bowled over, I asked Agostino if my emotional reaction was typical. “Those who pay attention are generally taken through a series of emotions. The reason for this is understandable; none of us, as pilots, have ever been properly exposed to the types of material and information that are so critical in preventing human failure. Therefore, when we are exposed to it for the first few times, it produces quite an emotional drain.” I was relieved I wasn’t going soft, and reactions from other attendees confirmed this. One guy from a Luxemburg flight department said, “I was not disappointed in Standdown—riveted from start to finish. For me the event was a huge success. I hope other companies will send team members next time.” —Mike Vines September 25, 2007 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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