The black box, more than any other piece of aircraft equipment, is a potent symbol of disaster. But last month, in a sharp departure from industry practice, Japan Airlines (JAL) began showing an in-flight video focusing its passengers’ attention on that equipment.
For most of their history, the bright orange flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — referred to inaccurately as black boxes — have served one function: recording the last information from a doomed flight. Recent technology, though, has allowed airlines to make flight data — previously retrievable only after a crash — more easily accessible. As a result, hundreds of details on routine flights can be collected. Data analysis and a companion program that encourages pilots to report their own errors are based on the idea that mistakes are lessons waiting to be learned.
But getting pilots to confess mistakes has proved too difficult for two large US carriers. So it is all the more notable that not only has Japan Airlines been successful with both programs, it is using in-flight videos to make passengers aware of its shortcomings.
“No one in the world is doing this,” says Michael Poole, managing partner of CAE Flightscape, whose Quebec, Canada-based company provides the technology to JAL and other airlines.
“Here’s an excellent way to communicate they are serious about safety,” he said.
In the three-minute video, passengers learn what kinds of errors the airline is looking for and what happens if they are found. They see pilots working in the cockpit and hear terms like “anomalies” and “potential hazards.”
“Through this program we want to be as open as we can and show our customers how we are improving safety in our everyday business activities,” said Akeo Misumi, director of JAL’s flight data monitoring office.
Even when potential hazards are not spotted, the information can be beneficial. Poole said subtle irregularities in piloting or maintenance could, for example, burn more fuel.
“I don’t care what business you’re in, if you have a device measuring the performance of your business, you should look at the data proactively to run a better business,” he said.
In the US, more than 70 airlines have signed agreements with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to participate in the Aviation Safety Action Program (ASAP). The pilots receive immunity from disciplinary action if they report their mistakes. But some airlines have dropped out of the program, which Robert Sturgell, the acting administrator of the FAA, has called “disheartening.”
American Airlines, withdrew six weeks ago, joining Delta Air Lines and Comair, a regional carrier owned by Delta.
Disagreements between the union and management prompted American’s decision. At issue is whether pilots can be punished if their errors would have been detected outside of ASAP.
Tim Wagner, a spokesman for American Airlines, blamed the pilots’ union.
“This is something we feel is in the best interests of our pilots and we want it back,” he said.
But Scott Shankland, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association, said, “ASAP at American is a victim of the poor relationship between pilots and management.”
In light of the difficulties that airlines in the US are having, JAL stands out, said Kevin Humphreys, director of safety regulation for the Irish Aviation Authority.
“For some cultures, punishment for error was considered part of a regulatory process. So for an organization to publicly acknowledge it makes errors is a positive paradigmatic shift,” he said. “The aviation industry has been a leader in learning from its mistakes, but first you have to acknowledge you make mistakes.”
JAL has also opened a safety promotion center at Tokyo International Airport where the public is invited to view the wreckage and personal effects of the victims of the most deadly single aviation accident ever. Five-hundred-and-twenty people died when JAL Flight 123 flew into a mountain in 1985.
That accident and a series of smaller safety events prompted the creation of the center.
When it comes to making a statement about the importance of vigilance to mishap-free operations, displaying airplane wreckage is a pretty bold one.
“Anybody who has ever pushed back from the gate is fully aware that we have passengers who are nervous fliers, and we do what we can to keep them from having sweaty palms,” said John Gadzinski, a 737 captain with Southwest Airlines and the safety chairman of the Southwest Airline Pilots Association. “This may be another way to soothe passengers’ nerves, but I sure wouldn’t do it this way.”
The Air Transportation Association of America, a trade organization representing air carriers, said in an e-mail message, “Raising the issue of safety as passengers get ready to depart [even if you’re touting your programs] doesn’t make sense.”
It is not just passengers who may get skittish. This summer, Judge Karl Forester of US District Court in Lexington, Kentucky, gave airlines a reason to worry when he upheld a decision in the lawsuit against Comair for the 2006 crash of Flight 5191, which killed 49 people, that gave lawyers for the victims’ families access to the airline’s confidential ASAP records.
Comair argued unsuccessfully that airline self-reporting should be protected from civil lawsuits.
JAL says that passengers have had little to say about the new video. But not since the early days of air travel, when flight attendants were also registered nurses, has safety been presented to passengers in so forthright a manner.
Many in the industry are waiting to see if explaining that errors can make air travel safer can make air travelers feel safer, too.
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