Listen to your plane.

Former NASA chief astronaut and USAF test pilot Charlie Precourt has a good article in the July edition of EAA’s Sport Aviation magazine. It’s on the normalization of deviance. That’s something we learnt about from studying the Space Shuttle accidents. And something we can apply every time we go flying. Listen to your plane. Don’t let standards slip. Don’t normalize deviance. (Picture is damaged TPS tiles on the Space Shuttle Endeavor, NASA S118-E-06229)

It’s always a balance

It’s always a balance — you have to make money; you have to stay on schedule; moving people is your goal. But you have to get them there safely. Captain Sheryl Clarke Director of safety, security and compliance, ExpressJet Airlines. While there are some concerns with SMS, it’s nice to see a senior airline SMS manager publicly (in Flying magazine online) acknowledge that safety is not number one. Moving people is the goal. Safety is risk management. Safety is a balance.   “Safety is our number one value” and other trite soundbites initially sound good, until you try to apply … Continue reading It’s always a balance