Runway Incursion Avoidance Series 2 – (Human Factors) Part 1

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Written by Jason L Hamlett CM, ACE, GSP, CPI  (6/23/2023)
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Runway Incursion Avoidance Series 2 – Human Factors (part 1) 👫👫

The airport movement area contains systems designed to prevent and lower the risk of runway incursions and aircraft ground collisions. Despite the sophistication and effectiveness of runway protection systems, runway safety data suggest a steady increase in surface events since the end of the Covid-19 Pandemic. This can be partially contributed to increased operations, however if the recent trends continue, incursions and surface incidents will soon surpass pre pandemic numbers. Runway incursion and airport surface incident statistics can be found here: Runway Safety Statistics (faa.gov) The human interaction with simple and complex systems, machines, processes, and environments has been identified as a direct cause and contributing factor to countless runway related accidents and incidents. In Series 2 we will explore the human aspect of runway incursion avoidance, and how this effects airport movement area safety.

What we heard about Human Factors 👂

Explaining the human aspect of safety in the Airport Operations Area AOA is no small task. Pilots, controllers, mechanics, ramp workers, fire fighters, police, security, field maintenance, airside operations, and construction workers, all perform their daily task on the movement and non-movement areas of the AOA. With an increase in airline service levels, an increased presence of aeronautical service providers exists on the AOA as well. Each employee no matter the classification and skill level, have specific tasks, procedures, and training exclusive to their organizational goals. Each classification also strives to attain the highest level of quality regarding safety and productivity. Despite these efforts and systems designed to manage safety efficiently, accidents, incidents, and near misses still occur on active runway surfaces.

The Federal Aviation Administration FAA defines Human Factors Safety as:

“A multidisciplinary effort to generate and compile information about human capabilities and limitations and apply that information to equipment, systems, facilities, procedures, jobs, environments, training, staffing, and personnel management for safe, comfortable, and effective human performance” (FAA Order 9550.8A).

Simply put, abating human factors errors encompasses the application of research from sciences, and engineering, to understand the characteristics and limitations of human workers as they interact with work systems.  The mental and physical capabilities of the human workers must be matched to all aspects of the job, or performance and safety will be negatively affected.

Scientific disciplines involved in human factors research that affect runway safety include physiology, phycology, kinesiology, and neuroscience. Scientist such as phycologist strive to apply their broad disciplines to better understand human behaviors and mental capacities. For example, a clinical phycologist will strive to identify the effects of medications, recreational drugs, and alcohol on how we think and make decisions. Human factors experts apply the research and findings from scientist to reduce safety risk. Engineers involved in runway incursion avoidance include safety, industrial, systems, and mechanical. Engineers develop tools and machines that increase human output and safety for a given job task or system interface. In contrast human factors experts examine the application of the tools and or machines developed by engineers from the human perspective to increase safety and efficiency.  Often the discipline of workplace Ergonomics can be mistaken and used as a catch all for the abatement of human injuries in the workplace. Although ergonomics does address the physical, cognitive, and organizational aspects of human interactions with work systems, ergonomics focuses more on efficiencies and risk to the individual, not all who operate within the system.  

Have a PEAR to better understand Human Factors 🍐

I’m not referring to a yummy piece of fruit. PEAR is an acronym that is used in the aviation industry to describe and better understand the application of human factors. PEAR stands for:

People

Environment

Actions

Resources

People: These are the individuals who perform work on the AOA. The demographics (age, sex, education level, physical abilities, mental capabilities, and etc.) of each individual must be equally considered as no one person is created equally to another. Have you considered the differences in personal communications between cultures? Human factors experts do. As mentioned above all aspects of the work and associated systems must be designed around the capacities and limitations of the people.

Environment: Environment ties into people as it represents the physical, social, and organizational environment the people work in. Runways are located outdoors, which is subject to extreme temperatures, noise, lighting, and darkness depending on where you live and the time of day. Most workers who access runway surfaces do so in some form of vehicle, be it a plane, tug, or car. The condition and use of the vehicle must be considered.  Organizational environment is directly related to the company’s safety culture and overall attitude towards working safe, just culture, accident investigations, and hazard abatement.

Actions: Actions include how well the employees are trained, certified, licensed, and made fully competent to execute the functions of the job task safely. Organizations who excel on actions keep excellent documentation of training, performance reviews, job hazard analysis JHA’s and job task analysis JTA’s. Tasks steps, sequence, communication standards, and quality of deliverables are all high priority items.

Resources: Resources tie into people, environment, and actions. Typically, resources can imply any item needed to complete a task. As mentioned earlier airport workers approach runway surfaces in vehicles. The vehicle can be both a working space (mobile office) and an organizational resource. The working space aspect will affect the employee’s environment. Does the AC work in the vehicle on hot summer days?   From the organizational standpoint the people performing a task are also a resource. According to the FAA, resources can best be measured by the amount of additional or less resources needed.

I have provided an overview of what the discipline of human factors is, and its relation to runway incursion avoidance. All too frequently airport safety managers fall back on lack of situational awareness as an incident cause. Same goes for airlines and the use of the term pilot error. With a strong understanding of what makes up human factors safety we can begin to explore further its application to avoiding runway incursions at airports.

Can you:

Determine how this knowledge can improve runway safety at your airport?

Think of any methods of identifying and controlling human factors errors for airport employees?

I look forward to hearing from you very soon!!!

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Runway Incursion Avoidance Series 1 (Airport HOT SPOTS)

 

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By Jason L Hamlett CM, ACE, GSP, CPI 06/08/2023

Airport SMS Facebook Group

Runway Incursion Avoidance – Airport HOT SPOTS

What we know about airport HOT SPOTS 🔥

An airport hot spot is defined as a physical location on an airport’s movement area known for being high risk for the potential of creating a runway incursion or ground collision. Most hot spots exist at runway intersections and exit points. Typically, hot spots are areas of complicated design and bad airport layout planning. Pilots and ground vehicle drivers should use elevated situational awareness when entering known hot spots.

How to identify an airport HOT SPOT 🔥

History is always the best teacher. At your home airport, data from past surface events, accidents, and near misses can be telling to where problem areas exist in the airport movement area. For this reason, data integrity and collection of surface events is critical for airport management. When visiting airports, hot spot locations can be found on the airports diagram chart supplement.  An example of this is provided as the attached picture. Aeronav also produces a list of known airport hots spots as published by the FAA. This can be found here: All_Hotspot.PDF (faa.gov). In 2022 the FAA undertook a hot spot standardization project. This effort standardized the symbols and verbiage used on airport diagram charts to be consistent and less confusing. Today only two symbols are used to identify hot spots, they are either a circle or a cylinder.

How to reduce the risk of HOT SPOTS 🧯

Heightened awareness, knowledge, reduced exposure, inclusion, and training are all excellent suggestions to reduce the risk of an accident at a hot spot. Heightened awareness can be maintained by staying vigilant and always knowing your exact location and destination while driving or operating in the movement area. Knowledge ties into heightened awareness from utilizing experience from airfield driving and having a through understanding of the complexity and challenges of your airport’s layout. When I was an operations specialist, the hairs on the back of my neck would stand up when I approached a intersection with multiple entrance and exit points. Knowing the size and type of aircraft that operate on the airfield helps as well. For example, if I observed an aircraft with a Delta logo, I could speculate where it would park and its path. If the plane were a heavy, it would most likely go to the heavy departure runway, or parking gate at the terminal. If it were a regional jet, it would most likely go to the regional terminal or secondary departure runway.  To reduce exposure, hot spots should be avoided by ground vehicle drivers when at all possible. This is accomplished by proper planning and the use of alternate routes such as access roads. Never cross a runway or taxiway to save time regardless of if its closed. Inclusion involves participating in inhouse discussion and asking questions when necessary. My home airport host FAA sponsored Runway Safety Action Team RSAT meetings bi-yearly. These forums are excellent in identifying and declassifying a movement area surface as a known hot spot.  Training is something airfield drivers and pilots are accustomed too. As a safety manager and aviation professional, I’m all for spending time and resources on training. I want to highlight here the quality of your airports training efforts. Make suggestions, and think outside the box to improve training and never allow your training sessions to become mundane.

As mentioned, know, and avoid airport hot spots whenever possible. Always use a heightened sense of vigilance when in the area of a known hot spot. This simple advice can make the difference in preventing a simple operation from becoming an accident investigation.

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Airport Focused (SMS) Basics of Safety Series Part 4

 

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 Written by Jason L. Hamlett AMT, CM, ACE, GSP 6/03/2022

Systems Approach VS Traditional Approach to Managing Safety

Now that we understand the word safety, and who should be responsible for managing safety, we can examine how a systems approach differs from the traditional approach to managing safety. In today’s world, almost every aspect of our lives functions within some form of system. A system can be either simple or complex, but what remains consistent with all systems is that the components within the system work together within a framework to achieve a unified goal. For example, let’s examine the jet aircraft that operate on your airfields. They are engineered with wheels, radios, control surfaces, hydraulics, and turbine engines, as part of its structural components. Those components interface with humans (flight crews) which are also considered in the system at the time of design. The pilot’s role is to operate the aircraft controls in a safe manner so that all components of the system may function thru each phase of flight ending in a safe landing. In the same respect the airport organizations safety system includes items such as policies, procedures, manuals, inspections, investigations, equipment, vehicles, tools, and the list goes on and on.  SMS integrates a safety process into every aspect of the airport work system. The process of safety system management adopts the Plan Do Check Act cycle PDCA deriving from the ISO 9001 standard of quality management. The focus is shifted in the safety application to risk reduction. In quality management the focus is on consumer satisfaction and efficient production of goods and services. PDCA enables your airport organization to manage safety thru physical dynamic action in a documented process as opposed to static rules and regulations. The illustration to above is a pictorial example of William Edwards Demming PDCA model of continuous improvement. The steps of the PDCA cycle will be explained in detail in my next SMS series. The goal of safety systems management is the integration of continuously improving all the components of the safety system with management as the leading force. The components of the safety system have been called the four pillars. The four pillars are safety policy, safety risk management, safety assurance, and safety promotion. I will give a more in-depth explanation on the four pillars in a later post. For now, safety policy can be explained as the airport management’s commitment and active demonstration of safety as a core value, and mission. Safety risk management is an active process of controlling the airports prioritized risk. Safety assurance is an operational control of risk, usually through inspections, audits, reporting, and investigations. Safety promotion is usually accomplished through training efforts but can also involve the communication of audit findings, implemented corrective actions, and findings of risk assessments.   

In contrast, traditional approaches to safety management focuses on preventative controls and training to help mitigate workplace hazards (Jones, 2001). Although they can mitigate some risk, traditional safety approaches are centered on outputs and are reactive by nature. Also known as safety management programs, they typically focus on instructing employees of the rules (training), and monitoring if they are being followed. Often the monitoring is done thru the tracking of accident reports, worker compensation claims, lost workdays, and OSHA recordable injuries. The baseline measurement of effectiveness of the safety program usually rests on regulatory compliance. That creates a huge problem in my experience as I view regulatory compliance as the bare minimum of worker safety. Even the best traditional safety program can encompass audits, committee meetings, FOD walks, and site inspections and still fall short. This can be seen evident in the Tenerife airport accident of 1977, the Air France Concorde accident of 2000, and the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion of 1986. Each accident listed has at least one commonality, the existence of numerous active safety programs, and controls. What’s lacking is a strategic management approach to keep all efforts inline, and open channels of communication to receive worker feedback. Why is this important? As mentioned in my last posting airport operators are slaves to time, and time constraints creates external pressures. These pressures create opportunities to undermine any safety programs best effort by making the lines of prioritization between safety and production blurred. What this leads to is corner cutting by workers and a skewed view of how the work is performed by management. Narrow communication with the workforce regarding safety compounds this problem by limiting participation in the program and a feeling of isolation.

 Airports should consider transforming all safety efforts to a systems management approach. The goal is proactive and even predictive safety management. After a short maturation period the SMS manager will be able to predict where the accidents will occur and focus the safety efforts in those areas. This requires a tremendous cultural change effort, patience, and discipline.

References

Jones, C. (2001). CHALLENGING THE TRADITIONAL APPROACH TO SAFETY MANAGEMENT AND HOW LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOR AFFECTS SAFETY PERFORMANCE . International Gas Union, 6.

How does your airport organization approach safety?

What safety based challenges do you currently struggle with in your airport operation?

What are three airport SMS topics you would like to see discussed in this blog?

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Airport Focused (SMS) Basics of Safety Series Part 3

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Written by Jason L. Hamlett AMT, CM, ACE, GSP 5/10/2022

Safety Responsibility

Greetings faithful readers and new comers!! We are more than half-way thru the Basics of Safety Series for Health and Safety Management Systems for Airports. In this week’s post I will debunk some of the common phrases used in managing workplace safety at airports. Safety is a word that is frequently used but often misinterpreted. The word safety gets attached to buzz slogans and marketing campaigns that miss represents the true nature, and intent of the word. These quotes also misrepresent how achieving a safe work environment in practical application is accomplished. I am confident at some point in your career you may have heard these quotes at your airport: “Think Safety, Its Everyone’s Job” and my personal favorite “Safety is Everyone’s Responsibility." These two quotes are toxic to any organization’s safety efforts. I say this because worker safety is ultimately the responsibility of top leadership to organize, communicate, train, and enforce. In an airport, the accountable executive of SMS is usually championed by the chief executive officer (CEO), chief operations officer (COO), or chief financial officer (CFO). This role is titled the accountable executive because they are ultimately responsible for safety on the airport campus.  The SMS manager is a qualified health and safety professionals, who has been formally educated, have practical work experience, knowledge of regulatory requirements, and seasoned in best safety practices. This role advises the accountable executive on all matters related to safety planning and decision making by presenting collected data and measuring safety performance. It is my opinion that these quotes, and the endless list of others like them, give top management a free pass. Quotes and slogans like these put the burden of safety responsibility solely on workers who have no authority within the organization’s safety decision making process, planning, or funding. Vice presidents, directors, middle level managers, supervisors, and workers should be encouraged to work safely, and participate in organizational safety efforts, however, safety is not their job, or responsibility. Without the adoption of a SMS the front-line employee’s involvement in safety decision making is nonexistent or limited to toolbox talks, safety committee, or collective bargaining meeting participation. Airports cannot achieve safety if they operate from a reactive traditional approach to safety where the lines of communication and authority are rigid.  For example, an airport maintenance worker’s (AMW) position at most organizations are usually collectively bargained hourly paid positions on a set schedule. Their work responsibilities are predetermined grounds task such as snow removal, grass cutting, and tree trimming. Each task has a certain level of risk depending on the environment and hazard variables. Obviously, it is in the workers best interest to protect personal safety by adhering to training, wearing personal protective equipment (PPE), and not cutting corners. As an airport safety manager, I know for a fact that airport maintenance workers job tasks are burdened with time restraints that are natural to the airport environment. This equates to task that are performed on airport surfaces that must be finished as soon as possible. To close and open airport operations area (AOA) surfaces for maintenance repair, there is an extensive level of timing, coordination and communication with the FAA tower controllers and tenant airlines. If the surfaces are returned late, there could be negative effects to the airport traffic system. This puts great pressure aspect on the employee and middle managers to finish a work request within the given timeframe (like daily 1 hour scheduled runway and taxiway closures). There could also be a hidden incentive to complete a task as soon as possible for extra break or down time. Not to mention the pressure form front -line management to get as many work orders completed in a short amount of time. AMW’s are hired to maintain the airfield, not manage safety. As mentioned above workers like these play an active role in the safety program but the burden of responsibility does not fall on their shoulders.  For these reasons, safety cannot be everyone’s responsibility or job. To increase safety to its highest level, safety must be integrated into all aspects of the work planning, training, communication, policies, and procedures. Saying that safety is everyone’s responsibility is the same as saying that safety is no one’s responsibility. Leaders must lead and role players must follow that lead. To encourage workers and mid-level managers to participate in SMS, top management must be 100% above reproach regarding safety. The C-suite team must lead by example regarding safety. How is this accomplished you may be wondering. Leading by example involves attending safety committee meetings, participating in risk assessments, planned inspections like foreign object debris (FOD) walks, and most importantly never committing an unsafe act or ignoring an obvious hazard. I would even go further to say that executives should plan time in their schedules to visit work sites on the airport. Often the individuals who plan safety and budget for safety have an of centered viewpoint of how the work is performed in the field. Being visible to the workers also gives the executive team the opportunity to be seen wearing their protective vest, hard hats, ear plugs and safety glasses. Could you imagine the resounding effect of the CEO making a surprise visit to a patch job on taxiway A in full PPE shaking hands and handing the workers a shovel or tool. Workers are smart and can very easily identify a disingenuous effort. One mistake can cost your airport years in trust and participation. I implore all leaders to take charge of safety and lead by example, your workers will follow I promise.

Have you ever felt alone in your organizations safety efforts? If so add a comment.

Can you think of an other ways that top management can take responsibility for                safety?

What other topics would you like to know about regarding airport SMS?

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Airport Focused (SMS) Basics of Safety Series Part 2

 

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 SMS for Airports Facebook Group

    Written By Jason L. Hamlett AMT, ACE, CM, GSP 4/20/2022

Defining Safety

If you’re reading this, I am assuming you are interested in safety and learning about SMS, and how SMS can improve your airport campuses health, and safety program. You won’t be disappointed. Before I can explain the ins and outs of managing safety from a systems approach, I feel you the readers must have a clear understanding of what the word safety encompasses. Webster’s dictionary defines safety as:

1.         : freedom from harm or danger: the state of being safe

2.         : the state of not being dangerous or harmful

3.         : a place that is free from harm or danger: a safe place

These are decent definitions of the word safety; however, for the purposes of understanding SMS they fall short. In terms of SMS, you can’t define safety without acknowledging another key term and that’s risk. The word risk cannot be fully understood without highlighting another key term and that’s hazard. A hazard can be defined as any action, condition, or situation that exposes a person to harm, danger, injury, or illness. Hazards can also have a negative effect on assets such as facilities, vehicles, and equipment in the form of property damage resulting in loss of service. Risk can be defined as the probability that an individual, or assets can be exposed to harm or damaged by an unsafe behavior, action, or condition (hazardous). The presence of a hazard in the workplace creates a level of risk. From this we can deduce that the greater the hazard the higher the level of risk. An unchecked hazard with a high level of risk will most likely result in a negative situation such as an accident resulting in injury or property damage. This condition has a negative effect on the overall level of workplace safety. Managing risk to an acceptable level or complete elimination is accomplished in a 5-step process which I will explain in detail in a latter article. The absolute best explanation of the word safety was found in reading Ron McKinnon’s 2017 book on Risk-Based, Management-led, Audit-driven, Safety Management Systems. Ron’s definition of safety is as follows:

“Safety is the control of all forms of accidental loss by identifying, analyzing, and reducing risk.”

Learning from that if we examine both Webster’s definition of safety with how Ron McKinnon explains. My definition of safety is as follows:

 “Safety is an organizations effort to create an environment that is free of hazards using effective controls that reduce risk to an acceptable level or complete elimination”.

The goal of safety is to create a state where accidents, exposures, and injuries are reduced as close to zero as possible. How is this magical state achieved? The first step is to acknowledge and identify hazards within the workplace. This can be accomplished by worker reporting, inspections, and investigations. Reporting involves providing channels of communication where the workforce can openly voice safety concerns. Examples of this include hazard recognition programs, near miss reports, safety committee meetings, internal social media platforms, and accident / injury reports. Accident and injury reports are not the most effective way to abate hazards as they are retroactive in nature. Inspections are critical to safety as they can uncover underlining conditions that could lead to an actual hazard. Investigations are typically followed by accidents / injury reports and are also retroactive by nature. Investigations take a deeper dive into the scenario that led into the accident / injury report which gives a much clearer picture of the root causes and contributing factors of an accident. The second step is to apply effective control measures by utilizing an organized framework to abate hazards. The NIOSH hierarchy of controls is an excellent resource that can be applied to remove hazards and increase safety. Of course, elimination is the best choice but not always the most practical. Airport operators should examine closely each hazard to determine the most effective control category, then develop a strategy to implement a specific control action. For example, let’s say you manage an airport in a winter region, and you must do active snow removal in the movement areas. Each piece of snow removal equipment will have to conga line down the runway and stagger their plow blades, brooms, and blowers. In low visibility operations during snow removal, the risk of rear end accidents of large pieces of equipment is high. The closer the machines are staggered the greater the risk of an accident. Having a Vammas disabled on your main departure runway 15 minutes before the planned reopening time is never a situation you want to be caught in. Not to mention the risk of serious operator injury from being involved in a Vammas-on-Vammas rear collision. You can’t eliminate the need to remove snow from the movement area. It would be extremely expensive to substitute the work to a contract company making that option impractical. You can’t engineer a protective bubble around each Vammas. The most likely control category to apply would be administrative. The specific administrative control would be company policies and training. Training on maintaining situational awareness, following to close, and low visibility driving. Lastly a safe state must be continuously improved upon. This is achieved by reviewing control measures for accuracy, effectiveness. This ties into the continuous improvement loop of safety management.  In essence the goal of any quality safety manager is to create an environment at work where he is no longer needed. Safety managers should approach their job with the intent of putting themselves out of a job by making the workplace as safe as possible by analyzing the level of risk in each hazard and then applying controls to remove the hazard or make its presence as acceptable as possible.  

 

How do you define safety?

 

What types of hazards does your organization currently struggle with?

 

What topics would you like to read about and discuss in this blog?

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Airport Focused (SMS) Basics of Safety Series

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 SMS for Airports Facebook Group

    Written by Jason L. Hamlett AMT, CM, ACE, GSP - 2/23/2022 

Blog Introduction

Welcome to Health and Safety Management Systems (SMS) for airport operator’s blog. This blog was created for airport managers, workers, vendors, contractors, military personnel, and enthusiasts. The goal of this blog is to provide a public platform that facilitates discussion on the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking for SMS at certificated airports. In the next few weeks, I will publish my introductory series of writings for discussion on:

·         Defining safety

·         Safety Responsibility

·         Systems Approach to safety

·         Traditional Approach to Safety

·         Managing Risk

·         Hazard Recognition

Are you an executive level manager at a medium or large hub commercial airport?

 Do you manage airside operations, field maintenance, construction contractors, and risk management, environmental? 

Perhaps you are responsible for the safety of others at a federally certificated airport? 

    If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might have heard the term SMS fly around a few times. Without a thorough understanding of SMS, and its application to your airport campus, bearing the burden of responsibility may give you slight heart burn. SMS is not a new cutting-edge concept to managing safety. As a matter of fact, all FAR Part 139 certificated airports are already running a form of SMS as a requirement of their Federal Aviation Regulation FAR Part 139 self-inspection program. The problem with FAR Part 139 is that it only requires airports to track safety hazards and control methods that effect aircraft operations in the movement area only. Any seasoned airfield operations manager will validate that hazards, accidents, injuries and near misses occur in the non-movement areas. Developing, implementing, and deploying a robust SMS that is continuously improving, with consistent worker participation can only be accomplished with a solid understanding of safety, systems management, risk, and safety culture. This series will focus on the basics of SMS. I encourage any individual employed by an airport operator with a zest for safety to participate and comment in these writings. I am keeping all levels of employment in mind from the CEO to the intern level. I will explain how approaching airport safety from a system approach benefits your airports daily operation and increases safety for the entire airport environment. 

How does your airport organization approach safety?

How is your airport organization preparing for upcoming supplemental rule making to FAR 139?

What topics would you like to read about and discuss in this blog?

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