APRIL 2013 GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL
“We can also get tired within a shift if we don’t have regular meal and rest breaks – and that doesn’t mean eating on the hoof, or eating or resting in vehicle cabs. Then we rapidly become less effective and more prone to tiredness. Another key factor that results in tiredness is working overtime or extra shifts to cover for others. If this isn’t controlled and managed, tiredness can accumulate across a working week and beyond – a so-called sleep debt is built up, just as it can be by a poorly designed shift pattern or schedule. “So, applying good shift design and management principles to ground handling work, controlling overtime and shift swapping, making sure staff get adequate rest and meal breaks, and raising the awareness of our daily, most vulnerable periods (the small hours especially) will all contribute to safer ground handling operations, and reduce the likelihood of impacts on airline safety, too.”
References and further reading (*free downloads)
*Managing shift work, HSG256, HSE Books 2006 via
http://www.hse.gov.uk/ pubns/books/
hsg256.htm *Reducing error, influencing behaviour, HSG48, HSE Books 1999 via http://www.
hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/hsg48.htm Lessons from Longford, Andrew Hopkins, CCH 2000
Getting ahead with safety: is there a trust challenge?
Henrik Ambak, VP Ground Services and Post Holder Ground Operations at Cargolux Airlines International, is worried about the level of trust between carrier and handler.
“Having asked the above rhetorical question, let me answer it: Yes, I think we do have a challenge. The safety debate usually comes wrapped up in acronyms like SMS, ISAGO or GDDB (Ground Damage Database), all of which are well intended and solid frameworks, but which are not effective if underlying trust issues are blocking the realisation of the good intentions.
“An observable symptom seriously hampering the safety agenda is the lack of reporting by an airline’s service providers of incidents and accidents. Nor are reports issued along the lines of preventive approach reporting, concerning potentially unsafe practices, infrastructures and the like. We all know that solving a problem starts with knowing that it exists, and reporting is one of the easiest ways to gather information that can help identify where improvement is required. “Once it is richly populated, the GDDB will be of real value to the development
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of improved risk mitigation; but only reactively, since it will cover ground damage that has already occurred. And this is only of use if the report is perfectly clear on where and how the damage happened in the first place. “Airlines have long records of pilots
reporting on themselves: for example, on an destabilised approach or over a misunderstanding with ATC about assigned flight levels. The crew members, typically being protected by Just Culture policies, seek to ensure that a trusting environment allows for continuous improvement that is based on healthy feedback loops. “But do service providers file a
report when procedures are omitted or something was done wrong - even if the final outcome was right? Not necessarily. Why do service providers not report? The most likely reason is out of fear of a loss of image or business or fear over a claim for compensation. Further, at the personal level, a staff member is likely to be reluctant to report out of fear for their safety of employment. Not many months ago we experienced a problem at a western airport that involved a failure in scaling cargo correctly which led to an (initially) wrong load sheet: however, all
RAMP SAFETY BRIEFING 59
was discovered in time by our own staff. In the ensuing investigation, the response from the service provider was that: “We had a problem, he is now fired, so do not worry.” This is not exactly an approach that motivates staff to report; on the contrary, it promotes a doctrine of “If I’m not caught, then don’t report.” “In this context, the continuous debates about making Article 8 of the SGHA even more burdensome for service providers appear directly counter-productive, at least as long as we are dealing with non-repetitive, honest mistakes and a behaviour of continuous improvement. “So, what’s to be done? Here are some suggestions.
“First, airlines have to promote
reporting towards their service providers and ensure that their safety functions are solidly linked to their procurement and insurance colleagues to avoid taking the wrong approach towards those providers. In effect, this is extending the Just Culture policy to also cover outsourced services. “Second, service providers must get their feet wet and start reporting observations, be it actual accidents or incidents or even near misses or risky practices, to their airline clients, trusting that the airlines will deal correctly with
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