Crew resource management in aviation safety

¶ … Airline crew resource management [...] crash of United Airlines flight 232. I believe the crew on flight 232 did everything possible they could to save the aircraft and lives at that point in time and under the circumstances, and that cockpit resource management {CRM) played a large part in their survival and success in saving lives.

The crew literally "flew by the seat of their pants" during this crisis on July 19, 1989. No one had ever experienced the failure of all three hydraulic systems in flight, and there had never been training or simulator training of this occurrence. The crew had to develop a strategy as they learned what the plane would and would not do. Captain Al Haynes was in command on the flight deck that day, but the three crewmembers worked together, along with an off-duty training captain on board the aircraft, do discover how to even remotely control the flight path of the aircraft. Haynes notes they flew by saying, "What do you want to do, I don't know, and let's try this, and you think that'll work, beats me, and that's about the way it went, really" (Haynes, 1991). The crew found they could control the aircraft by using the remaining #1 engine to turn the aircraft gently in the direction they hoped to go, but there were no hydraulics -- no ailerons, no flaps, nothing else to control the plane's path. In the flight recorder transcripts of the flight, the cockpit crew can be heard working together to handle the problems as they come up, and this is a clear example of CRM at work during a crisis. Haynes continues, "So if I hadn't used [Command Leadership Resource Training] CLR, if we had not let everybody put their input in, it's a cinch we wouldn't have made it" (Haynes, 1991).

Communication was the key that held the crew together, coordinated with the ground, and assured that at least some of the passengers would survive this accident. Communication was terse, but to the point, and because the crewmembers worked together as a team, and discussed their options and results, they played on each other's strengths and weaknesses, and they stayed in constant communication with ATC. Haynes noted in has after the accident comments that communication was one of the most important factors in the cockpit, and the results, where only 112 passengers and crew were lost, while 185 survived the devastating crash indicate the success of their communication efforts.

If the plane's wingtip had not touched down a second before the landing gear, probably many more people would have survived the crisis. The crew labored to keep the plane level on landing, and actually touched down on the edge of the runway just short of the centerline, an amazing feat considering they could not control the aircraft. However, the right wingtip touched down as the landing gear hit the runway, and the wing spun the plane, and then broke off, spilling fuel and causing the resulting fire. Had the wingtip not touched down, the plane was still traveling too fast for a normal landing, but it might not have cartwheeled.

All the crewmembers, including off-duty United personnel were involved in the communication process. The flight attendants prepared the passengers for a crash landing, and the captain informed them of the emergency and their progress. The captain states, "the procedure for United is, when you're going to have an emergency preparation, you call all the flight attendants together, the aide does, the senior flight attendant, she briefs them, then they go out to their duty demonstrations, and demonstrate, and tell what they want done" (Haynes, 1991). Captain Haynes salutes the ATC controllers, especially Kevin Bockman in the Sioux City center, for their efficient handling of the situation. He also credits the ground and emergency crews for their excellent handling of the aftermath of the crash. In short, everyone, from ground crews on up, worked together to create the best possible outcome from a terrible situation. Had not all these pieces of the puzzle come together, it is almost certain more people would have died, and the disaster could have been much worse.