Safety at Southwest Airlines

Air Safety Week, Jan 28, 2002

'Conduct Flight Operations with the Greatest Safety'

Interview with Mark Clayton

Director of Flight Safety

Overview: Southwest Airlines [LUV] is the fourth-largest U.S. domestic carrier in terms of passengers boarded. The airline operates more than 2,700 flights daily with an all-B737 fleet of more than 350 aircraft. The carrier has been named a charter member of the International Airline Passengers Association's honor roll for being among the world's safest airlines. The carrier also has been recognized as one of the world's safest airlines by Conde Nast Traveler magazine.

ASW: How did you come to your position?

SWA: Well, I was hired in January of 1982 as a pilot and then in 1996 the manager of flight safety asked me if I would be interested in coming into the flight safety group. They were looking at me because of my standards background. I was a check airman since 1991, and I also have an airframe and powerplant license as a mechanic ... So from there I moved to the manager of flight safety position in 1997 and I've been the director of flight safety since 1999.

Safety Culture

ASW: What are the attributes, in your estimation, of a good corporate safety culture?

SWA: We probably have the model culture for that. You have to have a company that's going to define safety as its number one priority. And then it's got to provide an atmosphere where you can have a free flow and exchange of information without the fear of retribution. And you've got to show that support with upper-level management involvement. They have to define the focal point for their safety issues, and they have to have a good hazard reporting program, a good internal audit program, and then a method of closing the loop. It doesn't do you any good to gather the information if you don't close the loop. You have to have a process of incorporating and disseminating safety-related information that you gather.

ASW: Have you reduced this philosophy to any sort of an official corporate safety policy?

SWA: I'll read it to you: 'The mission of Southwest Airlines Flight Operations Department is to conduct flight operations with the greatest safety, highest customer satisfaction and the most reliable schedule at the lowest practical cost. These elements constitute the best possible product quality for our customers.' And I think that message is carried forward in every aspect of our training. Each individual carries that mission statement ... and it's displayed throughout the company - on the walls, in posters and things like that.

Measuring Safety

ASW: For a person sitting in your position, how do you measure safety given that mission statement?

SWA: The best way is through thorough trend analysis of the information- gathering systems that we have. The trend analysis shows us the precursors to the incidents and accidents and it helps us to measure our intervention strategy for effectiveness.

ASW: Okay, what are some of the indicators that you're looking at?

SWA: Well, we're creating a system we're very proud of that I think is unique to the industry. I'm going to throw some acronyms at you here. We call this comprehensive program VASI. And that stands for Voluntary Aviation Safety Information. There are three major elements in that program. One of them is ASAP, the Aviation Safety Action Partnership. And then we have a program we call FDAP. That acronym stands for Flight Data Analysis Program. In that is Southwest's computer-based irregularity reporting system. These are our normal 'captain's reports,' if you will. And they're all linked together ... ASAP is a pilot disclosure program that is purely human factors. It tells you why something happened. And FDAP is flight data recorder information that is coming off the airplane that shows you what happened. For a comprehensive view, you need both sides of the puzzle. I think our approach is a little different from the rest of the industry. They're not really looking at both programs together.

ASW: Right. How many analysts do you have looking at the ASAP reports and the daily dump of flight data?

SWA: We have an ASAP manager here in the office who is a line-qualified pilot, an FDAP manager who we just hired on, and we have provisions to hire a technical analyst.

Flight Operations Quality Assurance

ASW: Would it be fair for me to describe the FDAP acronym as equal to your Flight Operations Quality Assurance Program (FOQA)?

SWA: These are synonymous.

ASW: How many airplanes are you operating, and how many of them are equipped with the FOQA quick access recorders?

SWA: All 100 of our Boeing [BA] B737-700 fleet are equipped. And we have approximately 180 B737-300 and B737-500s that are equipped. We are probably going to take a representative sample of those airplanes. We will probably bring on 30-50 percent of our total fleet.

ASW: So that's the total Southwest fleet?

SWA: No sir. Our total fleet is 346. So we're not going to use the FOQA program or the FDAP program on the 737-200 aircraft, since they are a diminishing fleet. And the -200s fly a very similar mission to the -300s and - 500s. The -700 NGs (Next Generation) will provide some interesting information, as they fly a little different mission for Southwest than the three-fives (- 300/-500 aircraft).