On a smaller scale....where does all this start?
Have any of you ever flown for an Airline that has a terrible safety culture and then flown with another which has a great safety culture? I bet many of you have. Why was one good and one bad?
Was it because one airline was very lucky with their recruitment drive while the other was very unlucky? Of course not. it was a direct result of the leadership within each airline in the preceding decade/year/month.
The Airline with the declining culture was most likely being 'managed' while the other was being lead by people/someone who could manipulate a group of people to guide their behaviours in a certain direction.
The leaders of our industry are responsible for creating and maintaining a positive safety culture within their respective airlines. How many are actively going about this? There are many ways to do it but first and foremost the pilot group needs to know what the expectation is and see the consequence of not meeting that expectation.
Undesirable behaviours need to be obviously challenged and desirable behaviours openly rewarded until the culture is moving in the direction needed. Then, the maintenance begins.
This is pretty basic stuff, successful leaders have been manipulating group behaviours for centuries. In our business people die if our leaders are not successful. Every six months the CAA/ FAA requires us to prove our skills and knowledge, maybe it's time that industry management were likewise tested.
In my mind, the fact that the letter had to be written means that United management have failed to create a positive safety culture and manage the change of new hires and seat changes. That is the same as someone saying to you " you have failed to keep your passengers and aircraft safe" .
Uncool.