The following transportation safety issue was previously on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List. As a result of the actions taken to implement the necessary life-saving safety recommendations…We are Safer.
Improve Crew Resource Management
Crew resource management (CRM) training is designed to improve crew coordination, resource allocation, and error management in the cockpit. CRM training augments technical training, enhances pilots’ performance, and encourages all flightcrew members to identify and assertively announce potential problems by focusing on situational awareness, communications skills, teamwork, task allocation, and decision-making within a comprehensive framework of standard operating procedures. Two aviation tragedies provide noteworthy examples of what can go wrong when flightcrews fail to work together. The deadliest aviation accident in history, the 1977 collision of 2 B-747s on Tenerife, Canary Islands, in part occurred because the co-pilot and engineer failed to challenge the captain’s decision to initiate takeoff before confirming that the runway was clear. In the 1982 Air Florida Flight 90 accident, which killed 78 people, the NTSB cited the captain’s failure to reject the takeoff during the early stage when his attention was called to anomalous engine instrument readings. Accidents like these have led to extensive CRM training requirements for Part 121 operators.
Since 1980, the NTSB has repeatedly recommended that the FAA expand CRM training requirements to Part 135 on-demand charter operators that conduct operations with aircraft requiring two or more pilots. The NTSB placed this issue on its Most Wanted List in 2006, and 5 years later, the FAA published the final rule to require CRM training for all crewmembers, including pilots and flight attendants, of all Part 135 operators.
