Would You Like To Play....?

[jolly girl]

...with a great puzzle?

It seems we (as a community) have regular discussions regarding flights/crews which proceed into weather exceeding prudence and/or the legal limitations of the aircraft. I hear stories, here and elsewhere, regarding mission pressure. And then I regularly come across research regarding different types of internal, external and group influences on the individual, with quite noticeable findings, but in other domains. It has me thinking...

If someone wanted to look into the effects of mission pressure on aircrews in a measurable, preferably quantitative way, what strategy(-ies) would you suggest they use?
Single-event measures such as critical incident reviews or one-time surveys with "Have you ever..." questions? Something more longitudinal such as journaling or other form of regular reporting? Or some sort of scenario (single event or repeated measures?) in the sim lab?
Is there a particular demographic/operation/scenario population/region event/pattern that bears further investigation?
How much confidentiality/anonymity would the researchers need to provide either to the individual or organization to encourage forthright, honest participation?
Are there any questions/avenues you wish researchers would pursue that you have not seen but wish you would (or have seen and wish you would see more of)? Is there some sort of quantifiable data you wish was out there to take to management to change how you do business in reference to this issue?

I'd appreciate any thoughts, be they suggestions or bashes.

[Um... lifting...]

Continuous usage of an operational risk management matrix. Plenty already exist. They're kind of a crude tool, but are a means of quantifying risk.
If usage is mandatory regardless of conditions, you should capture occurrences outside the 'acceptable' operational boundaries. That is, of course, if everybody's honest... which they seldom are.
Reliance on reporting of individual occurrences is likely to miss most of them.

The challenge is implementation. First you have to select a population, then management or leadership has to buy in, and then you have to collect the data. Too many managers have a vested interest in the status quo. I wish you luck.

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Jolly Girl - whilst you have humans in cockpits you will experience the failings of the human species - we are not perfect, we make errors of judgment, we are not the same animal from day to day and we are often guilty of believing our own press 'I'm a pilot of course I can do x'

All the legislation in the world can't remove the operational pressures (some external, some internal) that crews feel (or perceive that they feel) to get the job done, whether it is taking friends on a jolly day out or getting a seriously ill patient to hospital.

Training and education are the main weapons to combat these failings but these cost money and need to be proactive to ensure a culture of safety not reative as a sticking plaster once something has gone wrong.

The biggest pressure is often the financial one but unless you want to stop people making a living from aviation that will never go away and people will always be willing to cut corners and take risks to make money - probably the biggest human failing of them all.