Safety Q&A with senior leadership

Flying Safety, Nov, 2004 by Paul V. Hester

FSM: As you serve as Commander of PACAF, what are your priorities as far as improving our safety efforts?

First of all, let me say how proud I am of the strong safety programs we have in Pacific Air Forces. Every day, commanders, supervisors and our safety management professionals are out there ensuring we're focusing on safe operations, both on and off duty. Yet as our Chief of Staff, Gen Jumper has stated, "The only acceptable mishap rate is zero, since anything else implies that some mishaps are acceptable, which clearly they are not."

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Here in PACAF, our priorities for improving our safety efforts are unit commander focus and immediate supervisor involvement. In all of our units, a commander is the person ultimately responsible for mission accomplishment. Safety is foundational to that effort since mishaps degrade a unit's ability to successfully accomplish its mission. Broken or lost equipment exacts an obvious toll on unit readiness. Injuries or deaths of comrades or family members have an even more devastating impact, both organizationally and personally, not only on the unit and wing, but our entire Air Force family. Clearly, mishap-free operations are a prerequisite for mission success. Our commanders must understand this fact and therefore bring a strong focus on mishap prevention into their unit's command culture.

As important as the role of our commanders is, the focal point of mishap prevention resides in the involvement of immediate supervisors with their subordinates. Engaged leaders understand not only the technical and professional proficiency and capability of those under their charge, they also understand the off-duty activities their people are involved in and proactively ensure personal risk management becomes second nature. As a supervisor, I should know who my motorcycle drivers are, and whether or not they've had the required training courses and certifications. Better yet, I should also be familiar with each rider's proficiency level (new driver or old veteran) and if needed, walk my riders through a personal risk assessment before they take off for their next road trip. If my newest subordinates have never lived near an ocean, I should ensure they understand and respect the hazards associated with the local shorelines before they head for that first trip to the beach. If my youngest nuggets have never driven an auto outside their home states, I want to ensure they're competent drivers, aware of the local laws and customs, before blasting off for a left-hand drive through downtown Tokyo. Better yet, perhaps I need to ride "shotgun" with them once or twice to point out the hazards and more rapidly increase their proficiency. Immediate supervisors who are engaged leaders will understand when and where their people are taking unnecessary risks, both on and off duty, and therefore, will "be there" to ensure personal risk management becomes ingrained in both our work and leisure pursuits.

One of the tools we've developed in PACAF to facilitate commander focus and supervisor involvement is the Comprehensive Assessment of Risk and Evaluation System (CARES) program. It is a web-based assessment tool which guides members through a personal risk assessment of off-duty, "high-risk" activities such as mountain climbing, scuba diving, motorcycle riding, etc., and provides not only an assessment of the risks involved, but a guide to discuss how to mitigate those risks. We've just completed the final test phase of this new program and will soon make it available command-wide.

Our ongoing strong safety program, in the hands of focused commanders and involved supervisors, will continue to improve our already solid safety record and prevent future mishaps.

FSM: What do you believe we, as AF members, can do to improve our safety record in flight safety?

When talking flight safety, we need to keep in mind that we've come a long way with regard to reducing our annual number of flight mishaps. In PACAF, just five years ago we had seven Class A flight mishaps; last year we had two. We need to focus on the successes that helped bring about the overall reduction in flight mishaps, not just in PACAF, but Air Force-wide. Timely implementation of the recommendations from Safety Investigation Boards has helped, ensuring lessons learned are included in training. An emphasis on following the rules and tech order guidance has also contributed. But the bottom line is discipline, both from the operators and the maintainers. Discipline to follow Dash-1 guidance, discipline to follow the AFIs, discipline to follow maintenance T.O. guidance, the discipline to be a strong flight lead or wingman. And the discipline to speak up and call a "knock it off" when you see a dangerous situation developing. Unfortunately, a lot of guidance we live by today is written in the blood of past mishaps and incidents. We still see quite a few mishap reports that reference failure to follow established guidance. Supervisors need to emphasize the importance of discipline and the dire consequences of not following aircrew and maintainer guidance. Combat capability and the preservation of our most important asset, our people, depend on it.