AIR TRANSPORT Flight safety reporting
Inconvenient truths
Aviation regulators are becoming concerned that there has been a decline in non-mandatory safety reporting – even set against the Covid downturn. DAI WHITTINGHAM FRAeS from the RAeS Flight Operations Group and Chief Executive, UK Flight Safety Committee, asks why pilots are now seemingly not prepared to put their heads above the parapet.
Aviation has recently had an enviable safety record. It was not always so. It took many years for people to understand fully that we needed to learn from the human and technical frailties that arose across the system and, for that, we first needed data to show where problems were occurring. Before modern aircraft started providing information on their own technical health and recording what was happening during a flight, we relied almost totally on human reporting – at least, for human performance issues, adverse weather events, transient technical failures and the like – and we still need these reports today to develop a richer picture by providing the human context behind the data and gain an understanding about events that might not otherwise be recorded.
If regulators, manufacturers and operators are to understand and manage the risks involved in flight operations they cannot afford to work in a data vacuum. Unfortunately, that is what is now happening. If you will forgive the metaphor-wrangling, the absence of evidence is becoming clear in the evidence of absence! Safety reporting for some NAAs and operators has reduced markedly since the start of the pandemic, even when the lower flying rates are accounted for.
So, why? The anecdotal evidence is that people are unwilling to ‘raise their heads above the parapet’ or otherwise draw attention to themselves because of concerns about their employment status. There is a perception that reporting will do precisely that, especially if it relates to any form of human performance issue. It is nothing new. The same effect was seen at a regional airline in the last decade – when a redundancy programme was in the consultation phase, safety staff observed that reporting reduced ten-fold almost overnight. A European colleague commented recently that even mandatory reports now typically lack detail or useful insights.
The lack of data will serve only to undermine the safety of the aviation system and make it harder for regulators to achieve risk-based oversight. Reporting is going to be even more crucial as the industry recovers from Covid-19. Take recently, for example. We have never had so many pilots operating at reduced rates, and events have exposed the difference between recency (the regulatory minimum) and currency (the level of practice that underpins fluency and accuracy). Flight deck routines have been eroded: how many pilots have had to give conscious thought to identifying the next event, or missed a checklist step until prompted? And was that reported?
Talk to any airline CEO whose company has been through a fatal hull-loss accident and they will tell you they have been scarred by the experience. While Directors of Flight Operations all have targets to meet, you will be hard-pressed to find one who does not want their crews to be healthy, well-rested and well-trained for just the same reason.
So why would anyone want to punish somebody for reporting a problem? What has happened to just culture? And why is there a perception that raising one’s head above the parapet is dangerous?
At the heart of this is leadership and communication. If you are at or near the top of the pyramid (with the parapet in full view), you should be making clear statements about what you expect of your team. You also need to ensure your message is being received and understood on the shop floor and that it is not being misinterpreted by the middle-management layer on the way down.
If people respond badly to receiving ‘inconvenient truths’, then it is arguably they who should be concerned about employment status. Don’t forget there are confidential reporting and whistleblowing routes you can also take and that your own integrity is an important element in safe operations – raising your head in the current climate takes courage but it is always better to do the right thing than the easy thing. Cover-ups do not work, as our politicians regularly remind us. If you get fired for telling the truth, you have been working for the wrong organisation!