Originally Posted by
Time Traveller
The trend towards the "cure-all dogmatic fundamentalism" towards company procedures, isn't just to be found at EK; . . .
I came up with an analogy to describe this - “The Safety Ratchet-Strap” ©️ 🙂
The first organisation I flew for used what I understood to be aviation grade straps for securing freight. They were pulled tight by hand (on the strap itself, not the handle), then secured by a single over-centre and latch movement of the handle that tightened it a further 2cm or so. This ensured that the strap could not be pulled too tight.
Subsequently I worked for another operator that used standard ratchet straps, that could be tightened as much as you could pull on the handle (with approx 10:1 lever, you can easily put 600-800 pounds, or more, of tension on the strap).
I found that the majority of people seemed to be convinced that the tighter they pulled the strap, the safer they were making it.
It may seem slightly counter-intuitive, but as far as I can see, the safest the system can be is when the strap is just snugly tight.
If the tie-down ring pulls out of the rail at 2000lbs force, and the strap has 10 lbs of tension in it, the ring has 1990 lbs in hand. If the strap has 1900 lbs of tension, the system will fail with another 101 lbs of jolting force.
There is a sweet-spot of maximum strength in the system, and tightening the strap beyond that point actually weakens the system.
The problem is that it is very easy to tighten the strap another click, thinking you are improving things, but no-one wants to take the responsibility of loosening the strap a click, even though it may actually be safer.
In my view, a lot of aspects of aviation safety have passed their maximum strength.
Time Traveller sums it up very nicely above -
I think most large Western airlines are of the thinking that, provided they can legislate/automate a procedure for every conceivable scenario, then there cannot possibly be an accident, no matter how inexperienced/low paid/basically educated/low aptitude/tired/low stick skills the crews are.
Fact of the matter is, it is ineffective, and can often be counterproductive, where we have overwhelming layer upon layer of procedure, and [can end up] stumbl[ing] into conflicting SOP minutiae, rather than acting and applying airmanship
In my view, there are many areas where we have tightened the “Safety Ratchet-Strap” too tight, and in places need to loosen it a click or two.