Necessity for Expedited ASAP
CAPT BENJAMIN STRUTIN
-compass airlines ERC
STAKEHOLDERS IN ASAP
GROUPS WITH DIRECT INFLUENCE ON ERC:
ALPA
COMPANY
FAA
GROUP WITHOUT DIRECT INFLUENCE ON ERC:
FLYING PUBLIC
ALPA
PRIMARY MOTIVE: SAFETY
COMPANY
PRIMARY MOTIVE: SAFETY
OTHER MOTIVE: PROFIT
• When there are delays, disciplinary investigations have
time to build and drain ALPA resources.
• It is most beneficial to have our MEC’s finite resources
focused on improving safety instead of defending pilots.
FAA
PRIMARY MOTIVE: SAFETY
OTHER MOTIVE: POLITICS
•
Delays cost exclusivity.
•
FAA use of subject matter experts (SME) on ERCs to gather
information for parallel investigations.
•
SME coerce the voting member.
•
An ERC outcome may set a precedent for other issues involving the
company, the FAA, and pilots.
PITFALLS OF DELAY
 NAV CANADA: “If you close this issue quickly, we will not
take this incident to the next step.”
 ERC and Safety Department distraction from other tasks.
-more tied up resources.
 Voting members exposed to organizational pressure. The
longer the exposure, the more subject to influence voting
members become.
Organizational Pressure
Examples:
FAA
“Look at all this evidence…these pilots intentionally
disregarded safety.”
COMPANY
Are all these retraining events necessary? Training is
expensive!
PITFALLS OF DELAY case study
Incident Occurred Sept. 7th
•
9/9 Safety Debrief
•
9/16 ERC #1 (FAA moves to exclude)
•
9/19 ERC #2 (acceptance reached)
•
9/23 ERC #3 (FAA questions qualification) SME – records investigations?
•
10/4 ERC #4 (no consensus)
•
10/24 ERC #5 (corrective action discussed)
•
10/30 ERC #6 (corrective actions finalized)
•
12/3
•
12/20 Pilot 1 completes training/pilot 2 get’s sick and FAA inspector goes on vacation.
•
As of today, pilot 2 still has not been scheduled to finish training.
•
118 DAYS and counting
TRAINING BEGINS
PILOT PROBLEMS
 Pilots removed from schedule without pay (3 months!)
 Emotional cost “are we getting fired/violated?”
 Long periods removed from flying is hazardous.
Especially for pilots with low time in type.
LESSONS LEARNED
 The longer an ASAP is delayed, the more time ERC
stakeholders have to push their agendas.
 Safety is not always the the number one agenda.
 Time allows organizations to use an ERC for non safety
issues. Time is not always on our side.
THANK YOU & FLY SAFE