SOP's
 

I'm back again, more questions and advise with my university report!

I am asking the question to any flight crew, do you believe, in the interest of safety, SOP's be standardised across an entire aircraft type?

For example, should BA and EasyJet be forced to operate their B737-400 in the same way? It is an interesting question which may have some substancial impacts for the industry, but to improve safety is it worth it? It would stop confusion for crews changing company, but it could cause problems economically for low cost carriers?

Anyones comments welcome!!!!!


Cheers for the help,

Andy

No not really.

Standard operating procedures are the procedures that a company wants followed for those operations that might be considered "standard". It is a basic framework upon which many things are hung. In other words they are the commonality that both pilots (in this case) should be familiar with and apply unless situations and circumstances require a modification or variance. They will take into account the manufacturers recommended procedures for a given aircraft type. However an operators specific environment and desire to achive commonality across its other fleets (if applicable) will also need to be taken into account.

For example an operator in Europe flying a 737-400 or indeed any type would have a set of standard operating procedures for that fleet. Where possible they might have tried to keep these procedures consistent with those applied to its other fleets. However lets say one of the operators routes is in to somewhere like Innsbruck Austria. In this case some of the standard procedures would require modification as to otherwise apply them might be potentially unsafe. What works for many airports wouldn't necessarily work here.

SOP's rather like CRM, are often trotted out phrases that imply a universal and rigid adhearance. In fact they are often subject to modification to take into account variables that fall outside of the "standard operation".

As each airlines operation and indeed fleet composition is likely to be different, the framework (SOP's) needs to be compatible with those differences.