TSB Canada Recommends CRM Training for Air Taxi and Commuter Pilots
 

In a report released last week, the Canadian Transportation Safety Board concluded major CRM problems contributed to a fatal accident involving a King Air medevac flight. They recommended that Transport Canada require operators to provide CRM training for air taxi and commuter pilots.

Transportation Safety Board of Canada - AVIATION REPORTS - 2007 - A07C0001

Unfortunately it would not have helped. The crew involved did have CRM training, the management pilots also had CRM training. At no point was CRM applied by anyone.

In addition, when Transport Canada mandates CRM training, the course must be approved by them and then followed verbatim with no deviations. This invariably leads to wooden, death-by-powerpoint, excessively boring courses which are difficult to stay awake for. The same course is then repeated every year without updates of any sort.

Pretend training is not the solution this industry needs. Management pilots doing their jobs, setting a rising standard, and putting massive amounts of effort into providing good, comprehensive training is what it needs most of all.

CRM and Organizational Factors
 

This actually a good report if you want a case study for organizational factors.

However, the analysis section leaves a lot to be desired. Funnily enough, mandating CRM training is probably the least sensible recommendation that could come of of the report.

Unfortunately ther seems to be the attitude by both the regulator and most company mangers that CRM training equals CRM in the cockpit on the line. Unfortunately my experience is the practical use of CRM concepts is fundamentally a function of company culture. How the chief pilot and line check captains apply CRM when they are out flying the line will determine if CRM is actually happening in the day to day flying ops. My experience has been that one small operator I once worked for had no formal CRM training but a very strong company culture that embraced all the traditional tennants of CRM. Pilots that didn't "get it" did not last long. Conversly I have seen larger companies that had an extensive CRM training program, but pretty much a complete absence of of applied CRM outside of the classroom.