Originally Posted by
Phil Space
As someone who is an old pilot and and not a bold pilot I suggest it comes down to being complacent. Auusie Croc guy Steve Irwin was over the hump where he no longer feared death because he "knew it all". Aeroplanes are like crocs...very docile but with a big bite when you are not expecting it. This laid back crew were bored and neither captain or co pilot thought there was anything out there to bite them. Tired, bored, complacent...call it what you like. This and the MK accident at Halifax are both down to one thing. PILOT ERROR
At least the MK crew just took themselves out!
This is true in any profession which requires a heightened sense of awareness at all times. It can be part of work dissatisfaction, fatique, boredem, etc., but these are all just a part of a bigger problem. The key to success is to keep a "culture of discipline" alive and active at all times. This means having some sort of process, or triggers in your process, that constantly bring you head back into the game and make sure you are not missing anything. This is probably easier to do in a military environment (although you still wind up with things like the C5/Dover Delaware incident), but much harder to maintain in a commercial environment. It requires committment from both management AND crews, along with the unions. It has to be self policing, and in short, MUST become part of the culture. It also requires individual commitment to not allow others to get complacent, even when it feels like you are preaching, or being a geek.
These guys were no different than anyone else doing theirjob in any other profession. They were 75% in the game, talking about things that were not important, and not catching the clues around them that were screaming at them.
I have worked with professional organizations for almost 30 years, at both consulting and management levels, and although I am not a pilot, I do know that you cannot change inherent problems if you do not change the culture. This transcript screams of a cultural problem. You can wish that it were not so, or vehemently disagree, but that's what it is, and EVERYONE has to commit to fix it.
Patrick