CRM and the Fly by Wire Flightdeck

¶ … CRM, which is a shortened version of either crew resource management or cockpit resource management, is training and education that centers on aviation situations and scenarios where human error can have a disastrous, if not fatal, effect on the crew and/or any passengers on a passenger plane. The linchpin of the CRM framework is communication. It is accepted by trainers and professionals that communication should be timely, free-flowing and should follow an order and respectful fashion (Ross & Tweedie, 2012)(BEA, 2012).

In short, a crew member (e.g. pilot, co-pilot, etc.) will notice something is off or that something needs attention, will call for the attention of his/her colleague, will then state their concern and a summary of the problem, and then share a solution. If the solution is palatable to all involved, it will be accepted and implemented. If there is any concern about the efficacy or accuracy of the solution, it can be changed and altered in a way so that a resolution is garnered. CRM apparently was not followed during the Air France Flight 447. The instruments were apparently giving inaccurate readings but there was clear feedback to not engage in certain behaviors (e.g. pulling up on the stick) but the Air France pilots (at least one of them) did it anyway. It is hard to say for sure, but CRM probably could have saved those pilots' (not to mention the 200+ passengers) lives if they had collected themselves and their information before acting hastily or with incomplete information (Ross & Tweedie, 2012)(BEA, 2012).

But perhaps a bigger reason the Air France crash happened the way it did was that the pilot errantly pulling up on the stick was apparently doing do without the knowledge of the other officers in the cockpit. The primary reason for this is presumed to be the "fly-by-wire" technology that inhabits Airbus aircraft like the Air France crash jet. In short, instead of a single pilot's flight stick being connected to a mechanical lever or hydraulic, the stick is simply connected by circuitry. This makes constructing and maintaining the stick easier but the huge downside to the stick is that if one pilot is pulling on the stick a certain way, the other pilot (who has the same stick in his/her area) would not know it unless he/she were to look over and see it happening. Because the pilot making the fatal error on the Air France plane was doing the wrong thing and was doing so in absence of telling his fellow crew members as well as in ignorance of the plane's warnings to pull the stick up at that time, this eventually led to the plane's engines stalling and the plane broke up and fell a fatal four minutes into the ocean (Ross & Tweedie, 2012)(BEA, 2012).