Airport Operations | Notes | 29/06/2020
Crew resource management (CRM)
Crew resources is concerned not so much with the technical knowledge and skill required to fly and operate the aircraft but rather the cognitive and interpersonal skill require to fly and operate an aircraft.cognitive skills are defined as the mental processes used for gaining and maintaining situational awareness for problem solving and decision making.Inter personal skills are regarded as communication and a range of behavioral activities associated with the team work CRM training in aviation industry for the crews have been organized by the aviation industry including major airline and military airlines.
CRM has three clusters they are
- Communication and decision making skills
- Team Building
- Workload
Communication and decision making skills
This is the first cluster of CRM module - crew will need to ensure optimum performance , with poor communication there will be a lack of critical information which will subsequently affect decision making.
On 25th January 1990 Avianca flight 052 crashed while making a second attempt to land win JFK international airport . National Transportation Safety Board reported that the flight crew didn't communicated an emergency fuel situation to ATC
Team Building
This is the second cluster team building consists of major concepts like leadership and team management
larger aircraft such as A380,Boeing 747 are flown by teams and not individual pilots.Teams are often used in the aviation industry complexity increases and the technology advances.
On 23rd march 1994 Aeroflot(SU) Russian international aircraft crashed killing 75 people onboard the aircraft crashed after the pilot allowed his kids to fly this plane, while the boy was flying he accidentally disengaged the autopilot linkage to aileron resulting the aircraft to bank more than 90° which caused the nose to drop sharply the co pilot tried to fix the remedy but couldn't succeed and aircraft crashed to the ground.This example displays how poor team management can have disastrous consequences.
Workload
Final cluster of CRM is workload , These include concepts like mission planning, stress management and workload distribution. Accidents often happen when workload demands are greater than team capabilities. In pilot’s perspective, most accidents happen during take-off and landing phases. These phases are periods on high workload. But surprisingly, low workload can also cause accidents. In flight crew perspective, during the long cruise segments, the pilots may be less attentive then when they are working frantically. This low workload periods are times where complacency is the most common.
On 3rd September 1989 2045hour, VARIG airline flight RG 254 made a forced landing into a jungle near Sao Jose do Xingu, Brazil due to fuel exhaustion (ICAO Adrep Summary 5/89 #11). The flight, a B737-241 took off at 1725hour from Maraba towards Belem, Brazil. The flying time was approximately 45mins. The flight crew entered into the flight computer 270° instead of 027 °. After 2hours of flying, the captain finally realized that they were flying towards the wrong direction. Amendments were made to fly back to their original route, but it was too late. The plane was 600NM off course.
Fuel exhaustion occurred which leads to the forced landing in the jungle. The navigation mistake went unnoticed because the flight crews were reported listening to the World Cup Qualification Match between Brazil vs. Chile.
