Passion For Safety

Passion For Safety

By OffRoadPilots

Safety is in everyone’s interest, but not everyone has a passion for safety.

Generally, safety is defined as the condition of being protected from or unlikely to

cause danger, risk, or injury. Danger is the state of being unprotected from

external or internal forces. Risk is a probability calculation for an event to occur.

Injury is physical or emotional damages. Safety is such a broad definition that it

does not specifically describe future occurrences but is used to eliminate or reduce

opposition to implement reactive events. Air travel has a reputation for being the

safest mode of transportation. That everyone will be safe when travelling is a wish

but is not attainable unless it becomes a goal of how to eliminate danger, risk, or

injury. An aircraft may hit clear air turbulence at 41,000 feet, which then tears

apart any wishes for a safe flight. A passion for safety is not to wish for a safety

outcome, but to accept the forces of nature and work within acceptable unsafe

parameters. Any time motion is involved, such as a moving aircraft, vehicle, or

mountain climbing, there are latent condition waiting to cause danger, risk, injury.

Passion is a strong liking or

desire for or devotion to

some activity, object, or

concept. When one thinks

of passion, usually, it is the

thought of a driving force or

motion that takes over. It is

the one thing that keeps a

person going regardless of

what hurdles lay ahead and

the thing that fuel that

energizes a person when

they are feeling depleted. Passion pushes a person through difficult times when they do not what it takes to become better. Everyone have the ability to create whatever kind of future they want, but secret to living the dream is hidden in passion and what is done because of it. Passion is an emotion to be acted upon.  Without action, passion yields no worthwhile results. When a person has passion for something, they love it even when they dislike it. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people, is that successful people, because of passion, do what unsuccessful people avoid doing.

A person who is passionate about something, they are excited to do it, even if it is

difficult or does not bring in any revenue or notoriety. When working with a

passion for an issue, time seems to fly by, and it is easy to lose track of time when

tasks are done. Passion is a tool to look forward to every challenge and task,

including going to work, and a person becomes excited when thinking about it.

A person with a passion does not mind putting in the time or effort it takes to

accomplish what it takes to achieve, and they happily will go the extra mile. A

person with a passion goes on until being totally exhausted, and then goes on for

another mile. A person with a passion only sees the horizon without an end and

love the fact that there is no end in sight. 

A person with a passion feels right about what they are doing, they feel fulfilled, and well-being. There is a purpose when working with a passion. A passion has a major definite purpose.

A definite major purpose is something that is personal. No other person can create

it for another person. A major definite purpose can be defined as the one goal that

is most important to a person. It is usually the one goal that will help a person to

achieve more of other goals than anything else to be accomplish.

Albert Einstein quote: “Every person is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability

to fly high, it will give its entire life believing that it is an inane”. Working with a

passion is to find the area of expertise a person is talented for, or the personal area

of intelligence. It is not for everyone to become the king of a country, or for

everyone to do sleeping tests as work. Several years ago, a person in his golden

years was stacking fertilizing bags on the production line. Every day he showed up

happy and excited to do his job. It was by many viewed as an unskilled job and

monotonous job. When asked about what the job was, he explained and show in

detail how the process worked. Plastic pebbles were dumped into the processer tobe transformed into plastic, a machine would form it into a tube, and it would go

through a cutter and sealer to finalize the product as a bag. Bags were then folded

by a machine and continued down the roller to the end where a person would

collect several bags and place each bundle on a pallet. Each bundle was stacked

systematically so that all bundles would stay on the pallet and not slide off. He had

worked this process for many, many years. His passion was to be a part of a larger

system, and a system that benefitted humanity. The bags were used to store

synthetic fertilizer.

This plant had produced

synthetic fertilizer since

1903 and was the plant

where a superior synthetic

fertilizer process was

invented. The process was

developed by an industrialist

and scientist, along with his

business partner, and based

on a method used by Henry

Cavendish in 1784. This

process was used to fix

atmospheric nitrogen into nitric acid, one of several chemical processes. The

resultant nitric acid was then used for the production of synthetic fertilizer. At this plant a tall tower as built to extract nitrogen from the air.

When packing the bags on the pallets, the passion was the larger picture, and to be

a part of a global system where synthetic fertilizer was shipped all over the world

to grow food in areas where it was difficult to grow. Packing the bags was just the

first stage in a global system where he could contribute to the process. Without his

expertise and knowledge of how to stack the bags, there would not be bags

available to ship globally. Not only was the person a part of a global process to

grow food in difficult areas, but also became a part of a Nobel Peace Prize winner scientist work to produce a robust crop to grow in places where food previously

would not grow. Working with passion is what a person makes of it.

Passion for safety in aviation is triggered by several reasons. When a young person

witnessed an aircraft towing a glider and at 300 feet the glider pilot pulled the

airbrakes and both aircraft crashed into the lake below. Some years later an

aircraft turned final at the same airport, stalled, and crashed in the river. Several

years later a Helio Courrier crashed when landing on a gravelbar in the middle of

nowhere. All accidents had two things in common, that there were no fatalities,

and the pilots made control inputs that made sense at the time, but in hindsight,

they knew what the outcome would be. None of the pilots were surprised that it

happened. Events like these triggered a young mind to make aviation safety a

passion. Aviation safety was studied, the advent of the SHELL model, the PDCA

model, human factors in aviation, flight training, and airport and aircraft design.

Over years a picture was painted of a comprehensive aviation safety system, but

still was an incomplete aviation safety system. 

The transition of knowledge from study and observations to the regulated safety management system was an easy transition since the SMS introduced processes and data analysis into the equation.

The aviation safety management system (SMS) is the industry standard for safety

in operation. SMS was initially sold as a system to save cash and to prevent future

accidents. SMS was a tool to help companies identify safety risks before they

become bigger problems, which in operations did not happen. Passion for aviation

safety was adapted by operators and their personnel. Over time the SMS did not

deliver what had been promised. Accidents still happened, and pilots continued to

make control inputs they knew in hindsight would create accidents. A prime

example is the Boeing 737-210C combi aircraft that crashed when on approach to

Runway 35T struck a hill about 1 nautical mile east of the runway. The aircraft was

destroyed by impact forces and an ensuing post-crash fire. It was not their SMS

that failed to prevent future accidents, it was the organization that operated within

a system allowing for the flight crew to lineup final approach to a non-runway.

When a system, such as the SMS appears to fail, that is the time when passion for

SMS becomes critical to success. By the way, no matter how many accidents, issues, or occurrences there are for an SMS enterprise, an SMS cannot fail since all

it does is to paint a true picture of the operations itself.

Passion for SMS is beyond a

passion for safety in

aviation. Passion for SMS is

a passion for systems,

processes, acceptable work

practices, data collection,

and process analysis. An

SMS is not at tool designed

to prevent future accidents,

since there are no data

available to determine time

and location of any next

occurrence. An SMS is in itself reactive, including the proactive component of an

SMS, since the future is unknown. The Titanic was unsinkable, and the Tenerife

disaster had two highly qualified captains. The proactive component of an SMS is

when an organization has a proactive process or system that provides for the

capture of hazards. The capture of hazards is a reactive process since these

hazards are visible and already there. Developing a hazard register is a reactive

process since it is a reaction to known hazards. A proactive SMS is a system where

hazards are nonexistent, unimaginable, or unexpected. The hazard of lining up final

approach away from the runway, was not entered into a hazard register, since the

hazard was nonexistent, unimaginable, and unexpected that it could happen. A

proactive SMS is a system where statistical process control (SPC) is applied, and

processes are assessed for common cause variations and special cause variations.

An in-control process is an acceptable process. An out-of-control process requires

a root cause analysis and corrective action plan. When using SPC as a tool to

analyse processes, the issue changes from reacting to hazards, to reacting to

processes. Using the SPC process is based on data only, is an unbiased process,

identify known hazards as common cause variations, and identify unknown hazards

as special cause variations. There are multiple rules to define a special cause variation in an SPC control chart, but a general rule is that any point above the

upper, or lower control limits are special cause variations.

When defining hazards as unknown hazards does not imply that they are not

known to the aviation industry, or that airlines or airports have not experienced

the outcome of any of the unknown hazards. An unknown hazards is applicable to

one specific operator, as opposed to a group of operators, and these hazards are

nonexistent, unimaginable, or unexpected to this specific operator. Hazards

experienced by other operators may be used a reactive process by other operators

and must be relevant to both types of operations. An example is windshear

recovery. Recovery from a windshear on approach is different from types of

aircraft. A windshear recovery by a light twin engine airplane may be different than

a single engine aircraft, a wide body aircraft may be different than a business jet

aircraft. Geolocation may also affect a windshear recovery. Windshear recovery on

the parries, may be different than in the mountains. Using the SPC process and

control charts, it becomes possible for operators to identify their own unknown

hazards, conduct root cause analyses, and implement corrective action plans to

prepare for occurrences.

When building systems with

SPC and using abstract ideas

but not having a physical or

concrete existence, it is

helpful to the process to

have a passion for the

safety management system.

A passion for safety may be

more stressful than helpful,

since there is very little

happening during normal

aircraft or airport

operations. When working with SPC and the safety management system, there is no end in

sight, and the view ahead is an endless horizon. This is a challenge for many, since

everyone feel good when they can see the result of their hard work and a tangible result at the end of the day, but with an SMS there is nothing to show for. It is impossible to distinguish between start and finish.

OffRoadPilots