Professional Pilot, October 2017

Experts speculate the plane may have struck the seawall 19R The Boeing 777 deploys its landing gear as it arrives at San Francisco Intl airport Terminal flat authority gradient full situational awareness SA by both pilots and safety will be preserved If the FO keeps his observation to himself out of respect or fear we have a very steep authority gradient The captain will not receive essential information situational awareness will be diminished and safety may be compromised It is great practice in CRM to admit your oversight or mistake when pointed out by the other team member In addition some encouraging words or even a thank you by the chief pilot to his junior FO will reward him for the good job as pilot monitoring establish good CRM and reinforce proper cockpit culture at the same time In aviation we use the terms pilot flying PF and pilot monitoring PM The PF actually flies the aircraft while PM monitors the flightpath and the actions of the PF to make sure that the aircraft stays within safe and agreed parameters If the mental picture of both pilots is in agreement with each other and with reality we have good SA a key ingredient to safe operations Only proper SA of the flightdeck team allows for sound decision making The cockpit team needs to be alert and make good decisions CRM is about SA and good decision making For this the whole team 82 PROFESSIONAL PILOT October 2017 The tail breaks off Plane comes to rest approximately 2000 ft past sea wall 28R 19L Runways 28L Path of aircraft is needed A team differs from an assorted group of people by the fact that its members have similar mental models of the task at hand They know their respective roles what is expected of them and what is expected of the other team members An atmosphere of mutual trust and professional respect encourages good team work Good teams require careful selection of members their lasting motivation and intensive training A good team encourages open direct and honest communication Communication is never 1 way in a great team as feedback is encouraged Remember that communication also happens when nobody talks 90 of communication is non verbal such as body language or facial expressions Barriers to communication such as language culture status of crewmembers motivation expectations experiences and pressures must be actively kept low to achieve open interaction and therefore good SA Outside factors such as distractions and noise also play a role Flightdeck communications should be explicit Establish good communication practices in your flightdeck Reduce distractions close the cockpit door during critical phases of flight and encourage a sterile flightdeck during takeoff and climbout descent and landing During these phases of flight talk about the task at hand only dont talk about your significant other or grandchildren and stop others from doing so Older captains with lots of experience seem to have so many stories to tell But please do not tell stories during critical phases of flight Good communication must also be explicit and direct Address the receiver and make sure the message is well understood Closed loop communication is the method of choice for cockpit communication PF commands gear down PM checks validity of command acknowledges gear down PM activates gear lever both pilots wait to see if the gear lowers correctly Only after 3 green is the loop closed and the next task loop such as extending the flaps can be started Dont leave loops open and avoid several open loops at the same time The 3 levels of false SA realization With good communication the flightdeck team will achieve good SA Perception is the 1st level of SA For example Something looks wrong the runway is not where it should be The 2nd level is comprehension We are low on the glidepath At the 3rd level we achieve projection We will land short and hit the ground if we continue like this Statistics show that 80 of SA errors actually happen at level 1 Distraction fatigue inexperience and inattention all lead to the same result important early clues of a problem are missed A level 2 SA failure means that the early clues were noticed but not comprehended Reasons could be complacency or confirmation bias If you really want to get home because of your childs birthday you may not comprehend the weather report indicating heavy thunderstorms at your home airport Or you may fall victim to confirmation bias thinking that the weather always is better than forecast or will have moved through by the time you get there Confirmation bias means seeing what you expect to see but your expectation may not agree with the real world A level 3 SA failure is the inability to project what has been noticed and comprehended into the future This indicates a lack of experience skill or training Depiction of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 accident on July 6 2013 at SFO San Fancisco Intl CA which resulted in 3 deaths and 187 injuries