SPECIAL FEATURE
FAA Broadens the Requirement for Crew Resource Management By: Hunter Old
After analyzing data on acci- dents within commercial avia- tion over a 10-year period, the Federal Aviation Administration published a new rule in January of this year that requires all Part 135 operators employing more than one pilot to install Crew Resource Management training. The final rule gives commercial operators until March 22, 2013 to establish CRM programs for both initial and recurrent train- ing, and to have those programs approved. After that period, certificate holders conducting Part 135 operations will be pro-
hibited from using a crewmem- ber unless that person has com- pleted the certificate holder’s initial CRM training. CRM generally is recognized as an effective tool for reducing human error in flight opera- tions, and implementation of CRM training for commercial aviation has been on the National Transportation Safety Board’s “Most Wanted” list of safety improvements for the past seven years. The new rule, which is codified in 14 C.F.R. § 135.330, will affect 1,625 Part 135 operators that employ more than 25,000 crewmembers, including pilots and flight attendants, according to the FAA. Under the final rule, Part 135 operators must pro- vide initial and recurrent CRM academic training, which at a minimum must address the authority of the pilot in com- mand, communication processes, building and main- taining a flight team, managing workload and time, maintain- ing situational awareness, rec- ognizing and mitigating fatigue and stress, and mastering the aeronautical decision-making
skills tailored to particular operations.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which was pub- lished May 1, 2009, was designed to codify existing guidance in Advisory Circulars. It received only seven comments from the public, including one from Helicopter Association International, all of which voiced general approval for the proposal. The final rule dif- fered from the proposed rule only in one significant aspect. The proposed rule would have allowed initial CRM training to transfer from one Part 135 operator to another. Because of the significant differences among the operations of Part 135 companies, however, the agency decided to require initial CRM training for all new hires in the final rule.
As part of the rulemaking process, the FAA described the research it conducted into whether requiring CRM train- ing would improve aviation safety. Between March 1997 and March 2008, ineffective CRM was blamed for six heli- copter accidents, causing 17
fatalities, among the 24 com- mercial aviation accidents, and 83 fatalities overall, in which a lack of effective CRM was deemed the culprit. All six of the helicopter accidents involved single-pilot opera- tions. Had CRM been required over this 10-year period, the agency estimated, based on sta- tistics involving Part 121 opera- tors, that at least one of the hel- icopter accidents and 2.75 of the fatal plane accidents could have been avoided. According to the agency, effective CRM also could have prevented one non-fatal helicopter accident and plane accident. The new CRM training
requirement likely will have the largest impact on charter servic- es and air taxi companies, as CRM was not previously required for such businesses. They now face a significant expense in creating and seeking approval for additional training that will need to occur on a reg- ular basis. The FAA did take the cost of compliance into account, and deemed the likely improvement to aviation safety a sufficient justification for the
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