All change at CHIRP

It’s a New Year and a fresh start for us all. For me personally, in my first week and embarking on an exciting new CHIRP journey, it’s an opportunity to introduce myself whilst reflecting on how culture has changed in aviation over the very nearly 40 years since I took my first tentative steps into the sky.

Back in the mid-80s, flying a Bulldog on Cambridge University Air Squadron, the concepts of Just Culture and Human Factors simply didn’t exist, while Flight Safety consisted of some rather dodgy posters behind toilet doors. We made mistakes, of course we did, we were human, but the idea of owning up, especially to our instructors, was an anathema. Most student pilots thought they were budding ‘Top Guns’ and went to great lengths to keep things under the radar. If you did confess to your fellow students, friendly ridicule rather than learning was the likely outcome.

During an early circuit consolidation sortie on a gloomy day, I struggled to find the airfield from late downwind and had to ask for the airfield lights; it was only on taxy in that I realised I still had my dark visor down! Possessing a naturally open nature, I later recounted the embarrassing tale in the bar, where the response was much laughter and drinks on me for my ‘stupidity’. It was a pretty stupid mistake and I can laugh about it now with over 4,000 flying hours under my belt, but in the culture that pervaded at the time, there was no opportunity for (meaningful) sharing, analysis and learning. Some obvious Human Factors considerations could have emerged about capacity, distraction and SA, to name but a few, but these were entirely lost to us back then.

A few years later as an RAF Search and Rescue Sea King pilot, things had moved on a little, at least informally. Formal Safety Management had yet to come, but the concept of learning from your own and others’ experiences was well embedded. Provided you trusted your colleagues, then sharing within crews was commonplace. Long night shifts were an ideal occasion for ‘pulling up a sandbag’ and dissecting some of the hairier moments.

We devoured the flight safety publications that were available at the time, particularly the ‘I learned about flying/engineering/controlling from that’ articles in the excellent, and enduring, Air Clues. Similar safety content – insights into human and system performance without having to experience things first hand – is still prolifically available today. The very fact that you’re reading this FEEDBACK suggests that you appreciate the benefit. Please continue to help us to be a part of this important safety service by sharing your ILAHFFT experiences, or articles you’ve picked up from elsewhere. This could be by dropping us an email, or simply submitting a report through our website or App.

Winding forward to 2010, I found myself in commercial aviation, flying the MD902 Explorer and Bell 429 in an air ambulance role. In addition to line flying, as the Safety Manager for a small AOC, I established and ran an SMS. By now, safety culture had progressed significantly with a generally healthy reporting culture for Human Factor incidents and near misses. Although air ambulance pilots rarely see each other to share safety learning, an effective SMS and Just Culture ensures that flight crew can report confidently, knowing that they will be treated fairly and trusting that the system will benefit from their insights.

During my time in 3 different AOCs, I realised how Safety Leadership and a 2-way trust culture are fundamental to an effective SMS. By leadership, think everyone from the Accountable Manager to the aircraft commander and all levels in between. When leadership works well, we find ourselves in an enlightened environment where everyone is aligned and committed to continuous improvement of both safety and operational efficiency. On the other hand, less committed safety leadership can readily break down trust; at this point, people just stop reporting everything except perfunctory uncontentious incidents and mandatory issues. On the occasions when I witnessed or experienced this in the air ambulance world, it took months to rebuild trust and establish a just culture. For example, when a technical crewmember, quite rightly, reported concerns about a culture of ‘accepting’ a repeating critical aircraft warning owing to a spate of spurious alerts, the ensuing public rebuff by company leadership led to a complete cessation of reporting from that flight crew sector. How much valuable data was lost, just swept under the carpet, as a result?

Some of you will have your own experiences of where, despite best efforts, culture wasn’t entirely ‘just’ and a rich seam of valuable safety information was degraded as a result. Which brings me back to extol once again the benefits of CHIRP. If you’re lucky enough to operate in an environment of trust, where treatment is fair, then keep being part of the success story and never take it for granted. On the other hand, if you don’t have this luxury, for whatever reason, then CHIRP is available to receive your report. We promise complete confidentiality, independence and impartiality to help sort a problem that you’ve identified and potentially use your event to improve aviation safety.

Finally, I’ve left the best to last, by which of course I mean our illustrious outgoing Director Aviation, Steve Forward. By the time you read this, the handover will be complete and Steve will be sailing off into the sunset on a well-deserved holiday of a lifetime. Over his 5 years at the helm, Steve has made a considerable contribution to UK aviation safety and driven through powerful improvements to CHIRP. Through the choppy waters of the covid pandemic and the transition back to a new norm, Steve’s commitment to improving safety has been immense. From my perspective, his will be big shoes to fill; but from all of CHIRP we thank him and wish him the very best for a wonderful retirement.

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