Why would a ship sail into a hurricane?

By Dave English

This time last year the American ship SS El Faro went down in a hurricane with the loss of all thirty-three crew (Wikipedia page). It seems impossible ‘in this day and age’ that such a thing could happen. It wasn’t a mechanical issue, or a rogue crew, or pirates, or a freak storm. The Washington Post reported one of the deck officers voiced concern prior to sailing, emailing friends and family, “there is a hurricane out here and we are heading straight into it.”

Yankee magazine has published a deep read that is worth the time for any pilot to read: A Fatal Mistake | The Sinking of El Faro, by Rachel Slade.

El Faro
El Faro file picture

Airmanship and seamanship share meaningful connections. Look at some of these quotes I’ve pulled from the article:

“Even with all our technology, predicting the weather is still very much an art form”

“Many mariners speak wistfully of the peace they find on board, where they are temporarily cut off from the noise of the world.”

el-faro-underwater
El Faro deep underwater

“Technology may have transformed the industry, but the captain still sets the culture aboard ship, just as he did in the 19th century.”

“At sea, knowledge can be the difference between life and death.”

Safely operating through hurricanes (or flying around thunderstorms) comes with an element of danger. The safest thing is too always stay in port. But at some time we must leave. And when we do, we must engage the weather, the ship and the crew. This is the art of seamanship, or airmanship.

World’s okayest pilot

By Dave English

World’s Best Dad mugs are cute. Michael’s World’s Best Boss mug is funny in The Office.

worlds best boss

Now there is a World’s Okayest Pilot cup. (It’s a real thing, you can buy them online.) I think it’s pretty funny! A pleasant change from the Top Gun best of the best of the tip of the spear trash talk. And it gets me thinking: Is flying something that you are OK with being OK?

Okayest pilot

Let’s hope it’s just ironic . . .

Light bulbs, red lines, and rotten onions

By Dave English

I’ve talked about the MV Hoegh Osaka incident before. A huge ship that left port out of balance and soon was grounded on the Bramble Bank sandbar off the Isle of Wight. The official British Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) report determined that a “fundamental principle of seamanship appears to have been allowed to drift, giving rise to potential unsafe practices.”

Hoegh Osaka

Today I read an excellent analysis of the accident report and what it means for Safety Management Systems and safety/production balance in the real world. It’s titled Light bulbs, red lines, and rotten onions, by Nippin Anand. It was originally published in The Seaways of the Nautical Institute June 2016 Edition, and is online at the Safety Differently website. It’s well worth a read.

It has paragraphs titled:

  • Light bulbs and the myth of compliance
  • Crossing the red line
  • The proceduralisation of everything
  • “No blame” myth
  • A new view of safety management system
  • Purposeful compliance
  • Approximate adjustments
  • The equivalence of success and failure
  • Business is safety

Astute observations include:

Within the 83 page Hoegh Osaka incident report, the term ‘chief officer’ appears  132 times, and Master 89 times. By contrast, the organisation responsible for the safety management system appears in the report only on 60 occasions.

Where is the root cause of the accident? This shows how approximate adjustments and routine practices can sometimes emerge as disproportionate, non-linear outcomes.

And if you read the whole thing, you’ll understand the safety meanings of light bulbs, red lines, and rotten onions!

Chris Hadfield on fear

By Dave English

“A lot of people live in fear because they haven’t figured out how you’re going to react when faced with a certain set of circumstances. I’ve come to terms with this by looking deeply into whatever makes me fearful—what are the key elements that get the hairs up on the back of my neck—and then figuring out what I can do about it.

Even if the fear-inducing event doesn’t happen, you feel much more at peace because you know you have a plan. It’s a learned behaviour, but I think it’s an effective one. Don’t ostrich it. Then, when you are inevitably faced by something, you’re relying on gut instinct—not skills or planning—to pull you through. It might work, but there’s a pretty good chance it won’t.”

Chris Hadfield
Fighter and test pilot, astronaut, commander of the International Space Station.
Interview in Maclean’s magazine, 8 October 2013.

chris-hadfield_nasa-3-

Can you take it?

By Dave English

There’s some excellent airmanship advice in an article about the U.S. Coast Guard in Alaska (The Red Bulletin, Sept 2016). It’s from helicopter pilot Lt. John Hess (in the picture), who has been awarded the Captain Frank Ericsson Award, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and saved a bunch of lives by flying many extreme rescues.

He was asked, how does your crew prepare for tricky missions? He said:

By critiquing each other. Even after simple maneuvers, like recovering empty rescue baskets. Anyone who can’t take criticism puts others at risk.

Criticism is tough to take. I know. I’ve gotten plenty! But maybe if you listen, really listen, like John must have, you too will become a master pilot.

john hess