Safety Bulletin & Accident Analysis

[Skaz]

This is a request for a little help and advice from the more experienced folks out there. I am a fairly inexperienced FSO working for a large charter company that does charters, freight and medevacs.

In trying to make our crews aware of potential safety issues in the operation of our aircraft, I am writing monthly bulletins that includes accident / incident statistics of the types we operate. When publishing these statistics, I have found it generates more visual impact and is more readily understand able if they are in pie or graph chart format.

The accidents / incidents info and reports are obtained from the NTSB and other websites, I then read them, analyse and break the accidents / incidents down into three ‘compartments’ , which are illustrated as the charts.
These are:
· CATEGORY of accident:
CFIT, U/C failure, Structural failure, Engine failure, Engine Fire, Ditching, Inflight collisions, Birdstrikes and Collisions with obstructions on the gnd.
· PHASE OF FLIGHT :
I simplified the different phases into the following; Taxi, Take Off (from the start of the take off run to 400’ agl), Climb (400’ to TOC), Cruise, Holding, Approach (from turning outbound for the approach down to 400’), Landing (400’ to end of landing roll) and the Taxi again.
· C & R (Cause & Related Factors)
These are the primary and secondary causal and related factors that led to the incident or accident, being Human Factors (includes …well you know, just about everything: Training, Procedures, Health, Sensory illusions, CRM as factor and can also include some of the Category stuff like engine fire or bird strike…if somebody crashed while landing due being injured by a fire on board). Also Weather (snow, ice on gnd), Terrain, Technical failures, MRM, CRM , Runway Incursion…

I would appreciate advice on how to perhaps compartmentalize the different characteristics or parts of the accident, different categories, changes in the phase of flight labeling etc etc….

Also, I have a lot of info on websites for safety research, accident databases etc, but would welcome more,

And lastly, are there courses offered by the FAA or NTSB on accident investigation etc in the USA? How to contact, job opportunities etc for those study directions ( but still an aviator and don’t want to give up flying!)

Thanks in advance

[lomapaseo]

Try this for courses of interest in the US

http://www.scsi-inc.com/

Also try the Southern Calif Safety Institute as well

[Captain Stable]

Skaz, if you are in the UK, I suggest you ask your colleagues in the UKFSC for any examples of the sort of stuff they put out to their crews. There is a wealth of information available in the heads of those attending the meetings, and all would be more than willing to share.

I know that several post here regularly!

[NA]

Advise on Safety management

Dir SKAZ

I have been a flight safety officer working for a large airline for many years now, and this is my advise to you on your new job

1- dont fall in to the mistake of printing incident data from the web and distributing them to the crew, your are a flight safety officer and not a jounalist, crew are primerly intrested in the incidents in your airline before any thing else ( so as you should be), generate confidance among pilots, collect ASR"s, Investigate and issue a flight safety news letter every 3 month containing the abreviated ASR"s and investigations

2- you mentioned that you want to fly, here is a hard lesson, with time you will learn that you can be either a regular flyer or a good flight safet officer, it is up to you to decide, safety management needs time before any thing .

3- get Safety management training ASAP, other wise you will have no clue of what your doing.

4- convince your management of buying a DFDR readout system, without this tool you can never say for sure what is going on, and the real threats during flights.


Good luck in your new post

[UNCTUOUS]

Information Gathering

Distribute (and personally collect in sealed unmarked envelopes) an anonymous questionnaire every three months requesting

A. individual's opinions on the scenario for the next incident or accident.

B. Suggestions for making the operation safer


Further investigate critical items.
Publish results in Safety Newsletter 45 days after each collection.
Include a synopsis of relevant accidents that other operations have had.

Participants: Pilots, engineers, sim instructors, F/A's, despatchers

It tends to keep safety uppermost in peoples' minds. Try it, it works

[Skaz]

lomapaseo thank you, I shall be looking at that site with great interest.

Capt Stable no sir, I am not. A search on Google should reveal a website where I can contact those folks and get some gen.

NA Your post made me think a lot, thanks for that.
You have to understand that my resources are extremely limited.
The best or most 'generous' resource to me is the internet and the NTSB and similar accident databases.

I try to put out a new Safety Bulletin every month, covering Human Factors issues.

The accident info I get online I use to generate charts to illustrate accident trends in the a/c we operate, to the crews. It seems the best way of getting their attention thus far.

I have attended a FSO course held by a large company and have the Certificate, what I lack is real world experience.

I believe that being a pilot makes me understand more readily the FSO side of things as well, so I 'speak' two languages, Pilot and FSO!

Sadly, management backing is ...um, pronounced in its absence. I do not have an office, nor PC at work, etc etc...I do all my work at home in my own time and at my own expense. Once again, my resources are very limited.

unctuous you gave me a very good idea ,thanks. I shall generate such a letter or questionare asap.

To all again, thanks a lot.

[Captain Stable]

Skaz, UK Flight Safety Committee are at http://www.ukfsc.co.uk/

There are lots of useful links from there. Also check out the links in the thread at the top of this forum's home page.

I don't know of any Flight Safety Officer who has found his company management falling over themselves to be helpful. Best is to try to prick consciences. Talk to your equivalent of the CAA's Flight Operations Inspectors as well. They could do a lot to help you in having your company institute a properly safety-conscious environment.

If you are interested, I can email you a Powerpoint presentation on Flight Safety which highlights very nicely the costs of a poor safety regime. There is a lot there - it's suitable for everyone in an airline, from Ops staff to Accountants, ticket sales people to engineers. It is the cost bit that attracts most attention from the accountants!

[Skaz]

thank you, got the site down on my favourites list now.

I would appreciate the Powerpoint presentation tremendously,
my email is [email protected]

thanks