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 t's the le ... It's the right one." "Okay, throttle it back." In January 1989, after this hurried cockpit exchange, flight G-OBME crashed on the M1 motorway near Kegworth, in the United Kingdom, killing 47 passengers. Instead of shutting down the damaged left engine, the crew shut had down the right one, causing a disastrous loss of power.
Alitalia's computer-based Crew Resource Management course introduces pilots to the issues raised by stressful in-flight situations, using reconstructions of real crashes. | A detailed reconstruction of the crash forms the basis of an interactive, multimedia tutorial for pilots - part of a three-day crew resource management (CRM) course developed for Alitalia by the Human Factors Laboratory of the Institute for Systems, Informatics and Safety (ISIS) at the Ispra site of the European Commission's Joint Research Centre.
"Our work on the human aspects of safety began after the nuclear accidents at Three-Mile Island and Chernobyl," says Carlo Cacciabue, who heads the laboratory. "We developed an understanding of human behaviour and communication under stress, which has been used in the design of control interfaces and procedures, safety assessment, training and accident investigation."
It has since been applied in the fields of aviation transport and, more recently, de-mining and disability at work. "The JRC's primary institutional task is to serve the European Commission," Cacciabue explains. "But we also take part in collaborative research projects, as well as working for industrial clients on a consultancy basis. Alitalia asked us to produce a course based on a thorough analysis of the company's safety culture."
(1) See also this edition, "Leading by Example" and "In Brief".
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