Originally Posted by high spirits
The trouble with the system of DASOR is that every career chiseling bluntie gets to put his two penneth in because he once flew on ops. The amount of senior officers who 'climb into your cockpit' and pretend that they wouldn't have made the same decision as you is staggering.
They only do it so that they can get noticed putting the boot in. Nothing to do with learning lessons on AS. Stop it you burks....
Originally Posted by Dan Winterland
The big problem for military Flight Safety is the "alpha male'' commander/manager type that exists within the command structure. Their tenure is short and they don't want anything happening to bugger up their chances of promotion on their watch. This pervades the whole system - all they way to the top They want to know everything and are only too happy to apportion blame where they see fit - and which is rarely on their own doorstep.
The two posts above hit the nail on the head for me. The military is an unforgiving organisation, where mistakes - from a button undone to gear being left up - are punished -
it is fear driven, but broadly improves discipline and effectiveness, and 'tree-hugging' (openness and forgiveness) have never been part of the culture. Add to that the parallel culture that has prevailed in the last 20 years as the RAF has shrunk: promotion/pension at any cost, and the conditions are toxic for any sincere attempt at a Just Culture.
Interestingly, I hear EasyJet have a model safety culture that has borne dramatic reductions in accidents/incidents as
the culture prevailed. As a result they have saved a fortune in operating costs, let alone potential lives. But as my source made clear, and as several have said here, you can't just declare a culture in SROs - it has to be nurtured, which means those who turn to it in the spirit intended are genuinely supported by senior officers who have the integrity to see the end game as more important that their pensions. Or is that the underlying snag?