The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released a nine-minute video that highlights the crucial role that procedural compliance plays in commercial aviation safety.

"It's disheartening"

“Aviation flight operating procedures are developed and refined to provide repeatable steps for safely flying a plane in order to minimize the risk of an accident,” said NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart. “So it’s disheartening when we learn from our investigations that the very procedures that are designed to ensure safety were deviated from, leading to a preventable accident.”

The video, which is primarily targeted at pilots, uses findings from seven commercial airplane accidents to show how deviations from standard operating procedures can initiate a chain of events that may lead to devastating consequences.

The accidents referenced include the 2013 crashes of Asiana flight 214 in San Francisco and UPS flight 1354 in Birmingham, Alabama.

Critical to safety

“We hope that this short video will be used by airlines, regulators, pilots and aviation safety professionals to reinforce just how critical procedural compliance is to flight safety,” Hart said. “All play a role in ensuring aviation safety—not just pilots.”

Strengthening procedural compliance is on the NTSB’s Most Wanted List: http://go.usa.gov/cZuwe

The video can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/M4NL4m5cnhs

RELATED MATERIAL

• Safety Compass blog on this video by NTSB Member Earl F. Weener: https://safetycompass.wordpress.com/2015/12/03/procedural-compliance-taking-the-problem-to-industry/
• The executive summaries with links to the full reports for the accidents referenced in the video are available below:
• UPS 1354 in Birmingham, Ala., on August 14, 2013: http://go.usa.gov/cB3be Video summary of report: https://youtu.be/Dsr8C9fsYjo
• Asiana 214 in San Francisco on July 6, 2013: http://go.usa.gov/cB3jx
• Fresh Air Convair 440 in San Juan, Puerto Rico on March 15, 2012: http://go.usa.gov/cB3YY
• Colgan Air 3207 in Clarence Center, N.Y., on Feb 12, 2009: http://go.usa.gov/cB3Dz
• PSA Airlines 2495 in Charleston, W.Va., on Jan. 19, 2010: http://go.usa.gov/cB3BY
• Empire Airlines 8284 in Lubbock, Tex., on Jan. 27, 2009: http://go.usa.gov/cB3Wd
• East Coast Jets 81 in Owatonna, Minn., on July 31, 2008: http://go.usa.gov/cB3jV
• Video Safety Alerts on general aviation and helicopter operations that were previously released are available at http://go.usa.gov/cB3Bw