KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- Note: Long before the Air Force Safety Center stood up at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., on Jan. 1, 1996, Airmen were sharing their lessons learned in a variety of safety publications such as Aerospace Safety, Aerospace Maintenance Safety, Air Force Driver, among others. During a year-long commemoration of the safety center's 20th anniversary, the Public Affairs Office will highlight previously-published articles and reprise historic Rex Riley cartoons to emphasize that long-standing safety practices and lessons learned remain relevant to the mishap prevention program of today's Air Force.
She was used to finding all sorts of odd things during foreign object damage (FOD) walks, but nothing could've prepared her for the mysterious object she stumbled upon that particular day. There she was, brand new to her deployed location, staring down at what looked to be a rusty-old oil lamp at the edge of the taxiway. She used her uniform sleeve to wipe off some of the dust from the lamp when suddenly a genie appeared! The genie let out a loud sigh of relief, and a huge smile appeared on his face. He turned around, thanked her for liberating him and started to fly away.
"Not so fast!" she yelled. "Isn't it standard operating procedure for liberated genies to grant wishes to whoever sets them free?" The genie's flight came to an abrupt halt; he slowly turned around in midair. His smile turned into a grimace, and he forced himself to utter, "Fine. Go ahead and state your wishes, but make it snappy because I'm in a rush!"
She thought of her responsibility to protect her fellow Airmen, pondered her opportunity and then asked, "I want to know about the next aviation mishap my wing will have. How will it happen?"
The genie shook his head in disgust and said, "Where have you been living? You don't need me for that. Haven't you heard of Military Flight Operations Quality Assurance (MFOQA) and the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP)? Stop wasting my time!" He then turned and flew away.
What is it that keeps commanders and safety officers awake at night? They toss and turn in bed with the same haunting thoughts running through their heads: What do I NOT know that I SHOULD know? Where are my operational blind spots? How close are we to having a major mishap? Will it be tomorrow, next month or next year?
Flight safety in the 21st century has a new approach to answering those questions. We call it evidence-based proactive safety. "Evidence" means we use either quantitative or qualitative data, sometimes both, to determine our blind spots. "Proactive" means we intervene to break an accident chain BEFORE we get a "smoking hole."
We know that mishaps result from a combination of errors that end up hurting people or bending metal. NASA studies have demonstrated that over 200 errors can be identified before a serious incident or accident. Why not develop a way to detect those mishap links before they produce pain? That's precisely what evidence-based proactive safety does. We use MFOQA data to determine how close and how often we operate to safety margins, and we use ASAP reports to find out WHY we are making the errors that erode our safety margins.
Evidence-based proactive safety means getting dramatic insights into what's happening "in the system" before we read about it in a safety investigation board report. It means actively looking for snakes in the grass that are ready to strike without warning. With MFOQA and ASAP, we DO know what we DIDN'T know.
Could that be why over 100 airlines use evidence-based proactive safety as a fundamental process? Atlantic Southeast Airlines hopes to have their entire fleet churning out Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) data by this winter, and Delta Airlines expects to receive 10,000 ASAP reports in 2010.
Surely we can do as much, if not more, as our sky-sharing brethren from the commercial sector. It may be more comfortable for us to cover our eyes and ears, curl up into a fetal ball and repeat the mantra of trailing-edge safety: What I don't know can't hurt me!
But that would mean living in the dark ages of flight safety. What are the top excuses we hear for not moving safety into the 21st century?
1. That doesn't apply to us -- those programs are for heavies.
2. Those programs are for pilots -- not for loadmasters or maintainers.
3. Don't be stupid, dude -- keep it quiet or they'll shoot you in the head.
Guess what? All of those excuses are invalid! Evidence-based proactive safety applies to ALL aircrew and maintainers and has already saved Air Force lives and aircraft. Yes, that means YOU, the F-22 driver -- and YOU, the remotely piloted aircraft maintainer. We're moving the Air Force into a "just culture" model that respects and encourages aggressively searching for and detecting mishap links. Everyone looking out for everyone; or, as we like to say, "Every Airman a sensor."
Do your part to move Air Force safety into the 21st century. If your aircrew or maintainers don't participate in MFOQA and ASAP, petition your leadership to join the fight. Ask your leadership to look into them; otherwise, you're on the sidelines.
Welcome to the cutting edge of flight safety. (Reprinted from Wingman Magazine, Winter 2011)