Objective data coming from the aircraft! Great organizations manage what they measure!
How is the aircraft being flown? Were there deviations from standard procedures? Was it a long landing or a hard landing? Most importantly, what can we learn from each flight toward improving our performance?
Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) is the process of collecting flight data from the aircraft to identify information such as altitude, airspeed, heading, and other relevant parameters. From a Safety Management System (SMS) perspective, FOQA data is the objective “What happened’ so that upon investigation and root cause analysis, the pilots and the organization can identify “why it happened”. It’s the ‘why’ something happened that allows for a proper corrective action or new risk control to minimize the likelihood of that same issue recurring.
Often, FOQA data is tightly restricted to the pilots and a FOQA gatekeeper to prevent the data from being used as a disciplinary tool by management. Unfortunately, this type of perspective remains a challenge for many people. The value of utilizing FOQA data from a process improvement perspective is that the aircraft reports it in an unbiased and consistent manner; human-submitted safety reports may not always be reported accurately. If this data can be utilized for coaching, training, and communicating standard procedures, improvements can be realized much sooner within an operator.
While a gatekeeper may be the approach an operator takes, the key is to ascertain the ‘why’ and then share it in an instructional way. While names aren’t necessary in general, it may be that a particular person is struggling with consistency, and it’s in everyone’s best interest to identify why that is and work on a solution to help them improve their skills and consistency.
It’s essential to look at FOQA data beyond just the pilot. “Why” things happen is rarely due to a single causal factor. Exploring people, including organizational issues, equipment, environmental conditions (such as weather), work conditions, surroundings, and the air domain, as well as external agencies’ perspectives, can often shed light on invaluable ways to solve problems that plague your flight department.
For more information about the VOCUS Safety Intelligence Platform and our Services, visit https://polarisaero.com or contact sales@polarisaero.com products and services, visit https://polarisaero.com or contact sales@polarisaero.com
Steve Bruneau
Vice President, Aviation – Polaris Aero LLC
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