Bombardier’s 2015 Safety Standdown proved itself again this month to be an antidote to a dangerous time for aviation safety: a six-year period with no commercial aircraft accidents. While the business aviation safety record is not quite as stellar, it has certainly been impressive. Discussions at the standdown about dangers to the industry focused on how periods of accident-free flying can breed complacency.

Managing distractions was the focus of this year’s Bombardier Safety Standdown. Lapses can include when a crewmember is impaired by drugs or alcohol, or pilots who lose focus because their knowledge of their own glass cockpit operations barely meets standards for safe flight. The week’s talks centered on how seemingly innocuous events left unchecked can and have become hazards or led to accidents. As Retired U.S. Navy Commander and pilot Al Gorthy reminded the audience, “Attention control techniques is the theme [for this year’s standdown]. There are no easy answers to these kinds of complex cognitive problems…it’s sometimes difficult to see through the window and into the human mind. But whatever the cause, inattention is an invitation to increased risk and error.” A recurring theme at all standdowns, however, is the importance of personal and professional responsibility, a topic all presenters seem to believe is just as critical as understanding what action to take when faced with potentially hazardous situations.

Presenters acknowledged the hurdles employees everywhere face to ignore safety issues when pressured, such as fear of losing their job or reprisal by their boss. Those fears alone can make people clam up. But many of the speakers believe a bit of reluctance to speak up today can grow mightily into a personal philosophy that sounds like, “They don’t listen to me anyway.” Also spoken about is what it takes to be considered a true professional at everything, meaning someone who’s better than just mediocre. Gorthy said, “It’s time you realized that good is the enemy of great. And greatness requires risk and risk can mean failure. But failure is necessary for growth and growth leads to success. It’s time to be dissatisfied with our personal performance and raise the level of our expectations.”

The theme of personal responsibility and raising performance above the mediocre “minimum standards” label is a favorite of Tony Kern, CEO of Convergent Performance. At this year’s event, he blended those ideas with his philosophy for dealing with distractions. “For us to pay attention, we have to have an intention,” Kern said, “a reason to care about what it is we do, or we’ll simply go back to the way we’ve always conducted business.” He declared the era of pilot cynicism, apathy and frustration over, although he conceded that full compliance could take a while. 

Kern acknowledged the bad times of much of the past and he believes a better industry is just around the corner, but only for those people who can manage to get themselves unstuck from dissatisfaction with the job. “Before you can do anything, you’ve got to care,” he said. Simply pontificating about a lousy work atmosphere absolves the individual of his own role in maintaining the status quo, no matter his rank in the organization. “You need to decide you want a positive outlook, because negative emotions close down much of a person’s concentration and focus,” he told the audience. “It doesn’t mean ignore the dark side, but consider changing the bad things and how that effort alone positively affects your outlook. What’s going on around you doesn’t matter as much as your attitude.” Kern believes professionals, people who consider safety a serious concern, “need to admit they can be better, that they can be excellent in their job. If we feel helpless, we’ll be helpless. First you have to care and second you need to take control of the things you can control.”

Imagine tying the concept of safety together with efficiency, Kern suggested. The bean counters might sit up and take notice if the flight department explained how running a safer operation makes the whole business more efficient. “The idea that safety and efficiency of operation must be in opposition is nonsense,” he said. He swung back to talking about the need for pilots, flight attendants and maintenance technicians to be better than the minimum standards required by the regulations. “Think about a marketing slogan that tells people our department is so safe that we’re proficient to minimum standards,” he said. Compliance with SOPs is important but hardly enough for Kern.

To support his philosophy of being better than simply meeting standards, Kern asked the audience to imagine a flight and how they’d perform when their life and the lives of their passengers depends upon performance that is near perfect. “Mother Nature could quite easily give you an exam that exceeds 100 percent of your potential, let alone demand performance above minimum standards. There’s quite a bit of work to be done in that huge gap between FAA standards and perfection.

“The only one who can close that gap is you,” he said. “But why would you bother when you’re cynical and bummed out? You need to take this to heart: be a role model.” Kern told the audience to “stay on top of their game … read stuff, share stuff. Have courage, be humble. Remember the love you had coming into this industry. You need passion for what you do. It’s tough to pay attention when you have a negative mindset. Take some personal responsibility. No one is going to do it for you.”

Gorthy asked the audience simply to pay attention during his talk and to give his words careful consideration. “The world is filled with knowledge but very little understanding,” he said. Gorthy told the audience the average adult attention span is 20 minutes and they hear only every fourth word. That’s a challenge. What’s important is what we allow ourselves to hear and seek to understand, because “understanding is the number-one antidote to risk. Attention requires an incredible amount of focus. I’ve had many of those What am I doing? moments or What am I thinking? moments over my career.” Gorthy also believes it’s time for individuals to begin rising above the limitations imposed by other people and situations.

Clearly there is no magic pill or seminar that can improve a person’s attention to avoid distractions. As he watched many in the audience checking their smartphones every few minutes, Gorthy said, “The gratification from those devices is addictive. [But] it is your choice to allow that device to remain on and distract you. You need to make the decision not to allow those distractions into your life that interfere with your focus. That begins with willpower. Why not turn them off?”

Gorthy set the stage for the rest of the week by challenging attendees to understand themselves, their airplanes and the threats of the real world. “As leaders of the industry, it’s time to stop tip-toeing,” he said, “it’s time to realize we have a problem with inattention and error and it’s time to lead with disciplined people, thought and action.”

Safety Standdown is not about trying to achieve perfection, although everyone believed that might be a step in the right direction. “You’re not expected to be perfect,” Gorthy said, “but in this business good enough just isn’t. If you don’t have the time to do it right now, you might not get a chance to do it over again. I believe you already have exactly what you need [to manage distractions] right between your ears. But you have to have the willpower to put it into motion. If it’s important to you, you’ll find a way. If it’s not, you’ll find an excuse. And any excuse involving safety is invalid.”

As a man who has lost comrades, Gorthy’s final remarks presented a chilling challenge. “We’re engaged on a thousand battlefields with an elusive enemy, the enemy of human error. It’s elusive, it’s stealthy, it’s opportunistic, it’s indiscriminate. It lies in dormancy and strikes on its own terms. It has no shelf life or expiration date. It has no schedule. We need to defeat this enemy now and stop pretending it doesn’t exist. If there was ever a time to make a difference it is now. Let’s not postpone our responsibilities any longer.”

High-profile Accident Provides Teachable Moment

The NTSB investigation of the 2014 crash of a Gulfstream IV at Bedford confirmed that the two experienced pilots, members of a flight department preparing for IS-BAO stage 3 certification, ignored numerous pre-takeoff warnings and started the takeoff with the jet’s control lock still engaged. All seven people aboard died when the Gulfstream ran off the end of Bedford’s Runway 11. The investigation also revealed that, on many flights before the accident, the crew had failed to conduct the standard flight control checks before takeoff, a simple task that would have called attention to the lock.

Tony Kern, CEO of Convergent Performance and a speaker at this year’s standdown, asked the audience which of those missed control checks they thought was most important. Most answered, “the one just before the accident.” Kern offered a thought-provoking response. “[I think] it was the first one. Whatever were they thinking about when they got to the end of the runway, knowing full well how important flight control checks were and they didn’t do them? If you could just find that moment in time.” Former NTSB member John Goglia discusses the crash in this month’s Torqued and news editor Chad Trautvetter examines what the accident says about IS-BAO certification.