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| Checklists and standardization have saved countless lives. But "collective mindfulness" requires us to think beyond the list. |
I think we can all agree that the checklist has revolutionized our industry both in commercial aviation, military aviation and HEMS. Gone are the days of going through checks thinking you put all the A tabs into the B slots and taking off by memory. And hopefully gone are the days of realizing at 500 feet of altittude that you forgot to put tab A123 into slot B 420 and returning rapidly to the earth.
Yes, checklists are good.
But they can also be bad.
Yup, I said it. Blasphemy……
Yes, checklists can be bad.
We have likely seen it or been a part of it - I know I have. We all climb in the aircraft and run through the checklist and everything is the same as the day before.
“Chocks, covers, cords?
“Stowed”
“Engine mode switches?
“In flight”
“Caution and warning lights”
“All out”
“Doors and belts?
“Secure left, right, etc.”
We say the same things every flight. And we get into a routine. We all do it. You are not immune, I am not immune, Chuck Yeager is not immune.
Complacency is unavoidable. It is a problem that is NEVER solved, but constantly managed. The key to coping with complacency is learning how to have a functional relationship with it, knowing what it looks like and how to call it out on the carpet when it’s identified.
The checklist can be a great tool, but we need to check on it every now and then. It would be foolish to put a checklist in place, dust off our hands and say, “OK, the checklist is in place, now just follow it every time and we will be just fine.”
The checklist is a link to our survival and safety, but you can’t just put one in place and ignore it hoping that it is functioning appropriately. You need to monitor it. In short, just like everything else, you have got to check the oil and make sure it's functioning properly.
In the checklist above, can you see the problem?
Better yet, can you NOT see the problem?
In that checklist, we can lay eyes on every part of what we are covering just before lifting, except for the covers and chocks.
The point I’m trying to make is, just because you have a checklist doesn't mean that everything is OK. It needs to be evaluated and re-vamped from time to time. You need to seek out the faults in your checklist and bring them to light.
In our particular checklist, there is one item that we can’t visually inspect at the time the checklist is being performed. This leaves us prone to error. I have suggested a change of operation for my program to mitigate this.
I suggest that each of you take a look at your checklists and try to find a hole. Find something that isn’t quite right and fix it.
Go……go check the oil. Make sure everything is working the way it should be. Be a stickler about perfect function.
GO……..think outside of the box, look at things critically and make tomorrow just a little safer.
We save lives for a living. Let's save our own while we are at it.
Aρpreciate this post. Will try it out.
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