Why be so negative about such a positive project???
Line Operations Safety Audit.
Funded through a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration Human Factors Division, AAR-100, our research project has been involved in the study of crew performance during normal flight operations since 1994. The methodology we have developed, called the Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA), utilizes trained observers riding in cockpit jump seats to evaluate several aspects of crew performance. At the core of the LOSA process is a model of threat and error management, which provides a framework for data collection. In-flight observers record the various threats encountered by aircrew, the types of errors committed, and most importantly, they record how flight crews manage these situations to maintain safety. Our observers also collect data on CRM performance and conduct a structured interview to ask pilots for their suggestions to improve safety. These combined data sources provide the airline conducting the LOSA with a diagnostic snapshot of safety strengths and weaknesses in normal flight operations. On the research end, the large LOSA dataset maintained by the University of Texas Human Factors Research Project, which allows us to study crew performance issues across a number of different airlines within the commercial airline industry.