Trouble at the AAIB

[Ex Machina]

Just heard that another AAIB Operations Inspector has resigned - that's three or four in the last 12 months . They seem to be re-running the last recruitment campaign as well. Why are their pilot's leaving - is it just down to poor Ts & Cs?

[punkalouver]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Word on the street is that since the current (ex-Army) Chief Inspector took over a few years ago, the AAIB is run like a military operation (and not in a good way).

Isnt it it amazing that a place that will deeply investigate a lack of CRM on the part of a captain as a safety issue, will have a lack of similar, leading to a safety issue.

[punkalouver]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Word on the street is that since the current (ex-Army) Chief Inspector took over a few years ago, the AAIB is run like a military operation (and not in a good way).

Isnt it it amazing that a place that will deeply investigate a lack of CRM on the part of a captain as a safety issue, will have a lack of similar, leading to a safety issue.

[DaveReidUK]

Word on the street is that since the current (ex-Army) Chief Inspector took over a few years ago, the AAIB is run like a military operation (and not in a good way).

[punkalouver]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Word on the street is that since the current (ex-Army) Chief Inspector took over a few years ago, the AAIB is run like a military operation (and not in a good way).

Isnt it it amazing that a place that will deeply investigate a lack of CRM on the part of a captain as a safety issue, will have a lack of similar, leading to a safety issue.

[Ex Machina]

Originally Posted by DaveReidUK

Word on the street is that since the current (ex-Army) Chief Inspector took over a few years ago, the AAIB is run like a military operation (and not in a good way).

I could see that wouldn’t land well with former light-blue and civ colleagues.

[hunterboy]

With what they’re paying, I can only imagine the quality of candidates applying….

[trim it out]

According to the internet he's been in post since Jan 2017, so the question should surely be what has changed in the last 12 months rather than the last 7-8 years? Is the ex green suit really a factor, or a reflection of chips on shoulders?

[OldLurker]

I've no connection with the AAIB, nor with the individual who's been referred to here, but his CV doesn't look at all like some cartoon Colonel Blimp, but rather a highly qualified and experienced aviator and accident investigator. Of course, if he wasn't such a person he wouldn't have got the job. I do know some present and past British army aviators who certainly aren't the sort of 'military' type of popular imagination. YMMV

[punkalouver]

Originally Posted by OldLurker

I've no connection with the AAIB, nor with the individual who's been referred to here, but his CV doesn't look at all like some cartoon Colonel Blimp, but rather a highly qualified and experienced aviator and accident investigator. Of course, if he wasn't such a person he wouldn't have got the job. I do know some present and past British army aviators who certainly aren't the sort of 'military' type of popular imagination. YMMV

I have no connection either. But there are plenty of highly qualified and experienced people in all kinds of fields that have a personality problem. I think most airline pilots have had to deal with this sort of person. There are also plenty on the other side of the coin with unrealistic expectations.

[10 DME ARC]

AAIB will I guess fall into same realms as CAA, a government organisation based in or around London i.e. expensive! but pay levels ways less than industry norm! Hence only people who apply for jobs are ex military with a pension!

[CayleysCoachman]

Reminiscent of the mass resignation of Senior Ops Inspectors about eight years ago, when four left within six months, three without jobs to go to. If that doesn’t sound like much, there were a total of eight full-time equivalent inspectors at the time, engaged in proper investigation work.

The appointment of a chief inspector whose CV wouldn’t have made the first sift of applicants for an entry-level inspector post certainly caused ructions. But I dare say the organisation’s structural problems were more significant. It’s interesting to see why he was appointed: the hasty departure of the previous chief, who was subsequently disgraced in post as the chief of the HSIB, and the failure of the then deputy chief (a position which had only ever required a coronation to see the occupant elevated to the top spot) to pass the boarding for chief not once, but twice, showed damaging absence of succession planning, and the exquisite way the deputy had been promoted, in full accordance with the Peter principle (qv).

The fundamental lack of independence has always been a weakness there. The chief inspector’s reporting line, and that of the top bod at the CAA, intersect indecently close to their pay grades, with the expected results.

[Pilot1001]

Speaking here as a candidate who's recently applied for the position & considering giving up a career in the airlines for a job that on paper looks more interesting and subjectively more meaningful, would anyone who knows more about the role, or fully understands the reasons behind the resignation of many Ops Inspectors this year be able to share any more insights?

The job's a substantial pay cut which isn't to be taken lightly, but not everything's about money and it genuinely looks like the job can offer many new learnings along with a more structured life that simply aren't available in the airline world. Please feel free to DM if you'd rather not share publicly. Thanks!

[Genghis the Engineer]

Originally Posted by Pilot1001

Speaking here as a candidate who's recently applied for the position & considering giving up a career in the airlines for a job that on paper looks more interesting and subjectively more meaningful, would anyone who knows more about the role, or fully understands the reasons behind the resignation of many Ops Inspectors this year be able to share any more insights?

The job's a substantial pay cut which isn't to be taken lightly, but not everything's about money and it genuinely looks like the job can offer many new learnings along with a more structured life that simply aren't available in the airline world. Please feel free to DM if you'd rather not share publicly. Thanks!

I applied (as an engineering inspector) several times rather earlier in my career, and would have relished the role. I had and have worked on a number of investigations in support of AAIB, and at one point was visiting there to assist in various things maybe three times a year. The last time I applied, a friend and colleague who was at the time an ops inspector there was privately very encouraging saying that my qualifications were somewhat better than many of his colleagues (CEng, relevant PhD, low 4-figures mixed GA and military flying, experience analysing accidents including FDRs).

For reasons I can only guess at, I never got to interview. My guess is that the branch, at-least then, only really valued airline experience in both engineers and pilots, and regarded any other experience as additional. It is only a guess.

I have watched from a distance the branch's work for 30 years, in recent years with increasing concern. My friend and colleague was one of the ops inspectors who left, citing (to me privately) increasing disdain with what he saw as a toxic work environment, politicisation, and lack of willingness to make sufficiently strong recommendations. That could be true, it could just be that he wasn't getting on with the bosses - I suspect proportions of both. I've certainly read a number of reports over the last 5+ years that I was extremely unhappy with, several where I got involved as a consultant with re-investigation of cases because of subsequent litigation, and was forced to conclude that AAIB's findings were badly flawed.

There is no doubt that the role is a really important one, and done well, AAIB (or equivalent organisations') investigations make a real and substantial difference to our community. I think you'll make a far bigger difference to society and aviation there than you ever will as a line pilot, however good a pilot you are. I'd just recommend going in with your eyes wide open about what the job and the working environment are really about.

G

[ShyTorque]

I applied for a job some years ago. Mixed pilot experience of gliding, SEP, military trained FW and RW with civilian experience of RW. Ex Flight Safety Officer. They never even bothered to reply to my application. I didn’t bother them again.

[pulse1]

The AAIB has long been the bastion of an INDEPENDENT safety culture in the UK, held up as an example to other institutions as being free of the corrupting influence of money and power which is dragging most others into the gutter. I do hope that the above stories are not early indications of the AAIB going the same way.

[CayleysCoachman]

Originally Posted by pulse1

The AAIB has long been the bastion of an INDEPENDENT safety culture in the UK, held up as an example to other institutions as being free of the corrupting influence of money and power which is dragging most others into the gutter. I do hope that the above stories are not early indications of the AAIB going the same way.

No, they’re not. That happened some years ago. Finally, some people are beginning to talk freely about the decline the organisation has been in for many years. See my remark above about the chief inspector’s reporting line, which will help you understand why it is not independent…. The other problems it suffers have their own aetiology.

[blind pew]

Applied for an ops inspector in the mid 80s with vastly more experience than an ex fellow light aircraft instructor and ex VC10 pilot who became an ops inspector a few years before..heard nothing and mentioned it to a BA mate who suggested that I should have learnt the handshake.
Much later found one of my early instructors of Walt fame and incompetent imho was one - lucky escape.

[Pilot1001]

Would anybody who's been through the selection process for an Ops Inspector or privy to details of it, be able to elaborate on what the following contain/the best way to prepare for them?

• Ability Test
• Written Exercise
• Role Play

At selection events I've attended in the past for both military and civil aviation roles, it's been made abundantly clear what you're preparing for i.e numerical reasoning, aptitude tests etc so you know how to prepare and which online tools/software to help you do so, but it doesn't appear to be the case here. Would really like to give this my best shot so want to try and prepare in the most effective way. Feel free to DM if you'd rather it not be public. It would be hugely appreciated.

[CayleysCoachman]

Humour me, why would you want to join an organisation which is mired in HR problems firmly rooted in its chief’s office, pays a pittance, is utterly fettered by its civil service status and all the horrid red tape and procedure that entails, and no longer has any real purpose, given the paucity of significant events to investigate, its paper tiger status on the odd occasion it does get out of bed, and its policy of assuming that GA is a matter of ‘informed consent’ and therefore doesn't count? I could go on…