Qantas appoints new 'Head of Safety'
 

Anyone aware of who the lady previously worked for?

Not meaning to be offensive but:
would the size equate to the size of QANTAS? even though she isn't Chief Pilot at QANTAS.
is that important?
so?

Have management just given someone else the flick within the department? Whilst plenty of 'experience' the lady would not appear to be a career 'safety' person.

So she's a LAME then and understands how aircraft operate in the real world. Wow how good it this appointment, I am realy impressed.:ok::ok:Not

Calling her the "Stand out" candidate is a deliberate and stupid insult to anyone else who might have applied for the job. The insinuation implied is that they will die before they are ever promoted and should therefore leave Qantas.

To put it another way; LS has just told any competitors or colleagues of the lady to "eff off and die."

The usual formulation is that "there was a very strong field of candidates, and....."

It is interesting how AJ is distancing himself from safety by introducing a couple of management tiers. A sure sign that he is more concerned than he lets on !!!

I honestly doubt that he is even slightly concerned with saftey. what he is doing is put more layers between him and the eventual outcomes of his policies. It is those people that will take the blame, not him, you watch and see if I'm not right.:=

That's what I meant Arnold. Hopefully the Senate will impose criminal charges on CEOs that, in the event of a reportable incident or accident are found not to have given proper attention or allocated sufficient resources to correctly manage safety. Punishment: a term behind bars. Yes that is how seriously I think safety in aviation should be taken.

The SOP change that contributed to the JQ botched go around is a prime example of where a term in jail is due to the management who illegally introduced it.

So what happened to JG?

The QF Safety Matrix
 

genex,

He's the controller of the Matrix, this appointment is for one of the new silos within the Matrix...

but will he be able to keep it together when it counts?

Stay Alive

Kelpie,

Jail terms for CEO's, ya dreamin' mate. We're talking Australia, do a bargain with the prosecutors and you can do 18 months on a manslaughter charge for murdering your wife.

Where can I apply??? :E

It seems that way. It is Normal for management to build in some 'fall guys' into the structure. Executive Management surround themselves with senior managers who get promoted when things go well, or who get punted and take the fall for the boss when things turn sour. It is not a new concept but the catch is this - under a Safety Management System the CEO remains the accountable person. No layers of protection exist in this regard anymore. It doesn't matter how a CEO structures the organisation or how much he/she try to distant themselves from accountability, they cannot do it.
Now they can appoint other managers as the 'responsible' person for whatever role, inlcuding a 'head of' safety and the associated responsibilities, however they cannot palm off 'accountability', things have changed.

So you will definitely see CEO's start going to jail in the future for the failings of their company, e.g when accidents occur and deaths are involved etc. And it is about time too. No more gravy train for these people where they can do what they want when they want without getting their a#s in the sling.

Perhaps, but again times have changed. Any decision the CEO makes that impacts safety put's he/she in the firing line. I hope they are thinking twice about these issues now.

The accountable person rule is not immune from Australia. It is global, but it is also new, so many still do not understand how it works. You only have to look at the Concord saga to see how accountabilty has changed in its strength.

Silo it may well be, plus an attempt to shift responsibility. Smart move in it would seem especially the way things are currently going but it won't work, if they put one into the side of a hill and negligence is involved then it will be the CEO who see's the inside of the 'big house' !!

This wouldn't be the lady that ran Bundy Helicopters (sorry helicopter) for a little while and sat on the Bundaberg International Airshow Board that then went to PacBlue would it? Catered Qlink out of the Cafe in the terminal.

Illegal SOP changes???
 

Since when is it illegal to make changes to the SOPs?

It would be different if we were talking about making a change to the AFM....

Don't think the SOP for a go around is in the AFM.....

Could be wrong

Dont know about the Bus but all procedures on Boeing a/c originate from the AFM.

Why is there such a lack of pilots and engineers being promoted to positions like this within airlines? Lack of people applying or is it that senior managers just have no respect for us anymore? Seems to be the case that if your actually have something to do with aircraft at an airline these days your not management material!

Vigi - crossed my mind too. No ones given any details of her past employers. A very big step up if so.

Because Pilots and Engineers understand the principles of 'you have to spend money to make money' plus in general they understand the elements of safety.
Unlike today's CEO who has a background in financial consultancy, accounting and other toffee nose ****e, they would do a better job in the banking sector.

ANCDU:


Dear Oh Dear ANCDU!! You just don't understand do you?

The reason pilots and engineers aren't promoted is because then they would be a threat to existing management!

They are very rightly perceived as a threat [b]because then they would combine Formal authority with Informal authority.

Formal authority is a title. You can give anyone Formal authority.

Informal authority comes from being recognised by your peers as a natural leader because you have superior skills and experience.

When you get your MBA and get appointed to manage something that you have never done yourself, then all you have is formal authority. If the group you are managing has a natural leader with natural authority, and you don't immediately co-opt them, while learning as fast as you can about the business to give yourself a little informal authority, then you are setting yourself up for conflict. The normal response is to fire the person with the informal authority as quickly as possible, branding them a "trouble maker".


The exchange basically goes like this:

Manager (M): "I want "X" to be done this way like it says in this manual".

Informal Leader (L): "We can't do it that way. It doesn't work. It never has worked, the manual is BS. This is how we do it."

Manager: "I don't care what you do, I want it done like the theory says."

Informal Leader: "Listen Sonny........."

It's all downhill from there.

I've watched it done around Boardroom tables too. The last thing a know nothing manager or Board member wants to have to deal with is a someone who has the informal authority that arises from having detailed operational and technical knowledge of the subject under discussion because the manager will lose every time.

This experience was acquired through great pain as a once "know nothing" manager myself. Fortunately I realised and got the hell out of there.

Sunfish, how right you are.

Sunfish,

Your example is a wonderful precis of how it was in the 1980-1990s in the Australian Public Service.

Such waste prevailed.


Mike