Crew Resource Management

Airline Cabin Crew Resource

Management (CRM)
Cabin crew forms an important part of flight operation. They take the responsibility of the
people aboard an aircraft. For a long time, cabin crews have been criticized for taking causal
approach to aircraft safety leading to death of thousands of people. It is due to
increased incidences of human error in aircraft accidents that led to development of Crew
Resource Management (CRM) concept. Thanks to CRM, today’s flights and cabin crews are
quite different from those of early days of commercial aviation. The captain in the aircraft
was once taken to be the “God” during flight had his decisions and commands were not
questioned. There was very little input from pilots because it was assumed that captain knows
all and it would appear disrespectful to question the decision of the superior. This kind of
relationship did not go well with civilian cockpits and the number of accidents which could
be attributed to cabin crew errors increased. Airline accidents that were related to pilot errors
claimed hundreds of lives and the knowledge of cabin crew on handling flights came to be
questioned. For example in 1978, United 171 ran out of fuel flying over Portland and
unfortunately, this was not noticed even by the cabin crew until it was too late. In 1982, Air
Florida 90 failed to be properly de-iced and it crashed shortly after it had taken off from
Washington. It was also revealed that all the standard operating procedures had been violated
by the cabin crew. It’s a series of such accidents that could be attributed to human errors that
led to implementation of Crew Resource Management in a bid to empower them with skills
on how to handle flights. In 1980, United Airlines formally instituted a training program that
came to be known as Crew Resource Management (CRM) which was aimed at equipping the
whole cabin crew, including pilots, flight attendants, mechanics, dispatchers, and others with
personal and interpersonal skill to handle flights with safety. CRM mainly emphasizes on the
principles and concept of improving crew performance and flight safety. Although it has been
criticized by some people in the sense that there have been accidents attributed to human
errors despite its existence for more than three decades, it has generally been acknowledged
that CRM cannot solve all the problems related to human errors but it goes an extra mile to
equip pilots and cabin crew members with important safety measures they need to observe
during a flight. It is a not a panacea of aircraft accidents but it can make a huge impact on
mitigation human related aircraft accidents.

Introduction to Crew Resource Management

Crew Resource Management (CRM) is the application of human factors

knowledge and skills to the conduct of flight operations with the objective of
efficiently using all available resources (equipment, systems and people) to
achieve safe flight operations. CRM combines individual skills and human
factors knowledge with effective crew coordination.
Commercial air transport remains one of the safest methods of moving people
and goods from one point to another. The number of fatal incidents per mile
travelled is extraordinarily low however the industry suffers a paradox of very
low accident rate but a very high potential for loss of life when an accident does
occur.

It has been widely quoted during the past several decades that around 75% of
accidents are caused by human error but what this term fails to recognize is that
humans are but one part of the wider environment – they must interact with
many components including weather, technology, social systems etc. Despite
this, humans are at the most very basic level the root cause of almost every
incident because humans ultimately design and/or interact with all elements of
the wider environment.
The core reason for the existence of air carriers is to safely transport people and
goods from one place to another. Management of risk and threat is the key to
managing safety and therefore many aviation systems (such as weather
planning, air traffic control and flight deck warning systems) exist to manage
risk.
Modern crew resource management focuses upon the management of all
available resources to reduce error including all groups of aviation specialists
(e.g. air traffic controllers, pilots, cabin crewmembers, mechanics and
dispatchers) through goal setting, teamwork, awareness and both pro- and
reactive feedback (Helmreich).

The training of Crew Resource Management for commercial aircrew has

become a mandatory practise under the majority of the world aviation
regulatory environments (CAA, FAA, JAR, EASA) and practice of Crew
Resource Management is an integral part of commercial airline operations.

The successful application of CRM in aviation has been recognized and

equivalent training methods are now widely applied in a range of other high-risk
industries including, for example, medicine, fire department and maritime.
Crew resource management as a model of safety management

Crew resource management is a model of management used to manage threat

and error in aviation.

The core elements of CRM are

 the goal of a safe flight (goals),

 cooperation and communication between pilots, ATC, cabin crew and
dispatch,
 monitoring of internal (intra-crew and aircraft) and external situation for
threats (e.g. poor teamwork, weather, terrain, fuel state, location of
aircraft in regards to flight plan) and
 feedback to enable practices to be adjusted and threats to be evaluated

These core elements allow throughputs to be created which enhance system

performance.

 Awareness of the current state of both internal (onboard the aircraft) and
external operations (air traffic instructions, environment, weather) and
threats
 Threat detection (through awareness of the situation),
 Threat response through expertise (training/standard operating
procedures), coordination and communication (between the crew and air
traffic control, intra-crew, crew and dispatch etc),

By using the core elements and throughputs of goals, teamwork

(communication/cooperation), situational awareness and feedback the crew
practice threat detection and error avoidance behaviours.

Example application of the crew resource management model

A commercial flight is approaching an international airport that has heavy

convective (thunderstorm) activity nearby. The air traffic controller (TMA
controller) is issuing multiple instructions to the flight crew to sequence the
airplane with others towards the ILS approach. Because of the delays being
caused by the weather and extended vectors the flight is running behind
schedule.

The situation posed here presents several threats to the flight (weather,
demands of ATC, schedul adherence)

The flight crew detects these threats using the core elements of monitoring
and expertise (recognizing the bad weathers impact through awareness of the
environment and their expertise of meteorology, air traffic control and their
training in CRM/human factors).

These threats have been detected and the flight crew responds to the
threat using the throughputs of situational awareness, expertise,
communication/cooperation (teamwork) and feedback.

 Awareness of the current state of the threats and the situation (state of the
aircraft in relation to fuel, capabilities and where the aircraft is in relation
to other traffic and the flight plan)
 Expertise is used to manage the threats through the flight crew’s
knowledge of the situation and options available to manage it – e.g.,
diverting, holding
 Communication/cooperation between the flight crew, dispatch, ATC,
cabin crew is used to discuss threats, formulate a plan of action and
various options available to the flight.
 Feedback on how the plan of action is working

The flight crew formulates a plan of action by discussing amongst themselves

and dispatch (sharing expertise through communication) that they will attempt
one approach and if they must go around (miss the approach) the flight will
divert to the alternate airport (awareness of the situation and options available to
them – i.e. alternate airport).
The output of the action taken is compliance with the plan of action, ATC
requests and standard operating procedures.

Safety of the flight (i.e. decision to only make one approach and divert if
unsuccessful) is the outcome.

CRM & Aviation

‘Natural limitations on human performance and complexity of the environment
make error inevitable’ (Helmreich Pub.257). In the aviation industry, safety is
the utmost priority even though they (aviation industry) can justifiably or boast
about how much safer it is to travel by air then on road. The field of human
factors has been a great concern since the early days of commercial aviation
(Hawkins 1987). Human factors evolved from an initial combination of
engineering and psychology with focus on ‘knobs and dials’ to a
multidisciplinary field that draws on the methods and principles of behavioural-
social sciences, engineering and physiology to optimise human performance and
to reduce human error (National Research Council 1989).

One of the most outstanding developments in aviation safety for the past decade
has been the implementations of training programs aiming to increase
effectiveness and efficient in crew’s teamwork as well as flight-deck
management (Foushee & Helmreich 1993). This development was first
introduced when aircraft investigators concluded that ‘pilot error’ documented
in past accidents and incidents were reflected to team-communication and
coordination rather then pilots ‘stick and rudder’ skills proficiency (Murphy
1980). The original label for such training was known as cockpit resource
management, but with recognition to its applicability of the approach to others
members of the aviation community; it changes into Crew Resource
Management (CRM) (Helmreich, Merritt & Wilhelm 1999).

CRM training aims to develop effective performance which consists of

technical proficiency and interpersonal and team skills. The primary focus will
be directed to team coordination, the attitudes and behaviours of individual
(Jensen 1995). CRM courses are designed to address human behaviour which is
a product of knowledge and thought process, personality, attitude and
background. It is not design to change ones’ personality (Helmreich, Foushee,
Benson & Russini 1986).

In order to achieve those key-points mentioned above most CRM syllabus

worldwide contain a common set of elements. (Table 1).

Table 1: Structure of CRM

Crew Resource Management

 Communication
  Workload Management
 Decision-making
 Conflict Resolution
 Leadership
 Team Management
 Stress Management

Crew Resource Management, Awareness, Cockpit Efficiency & Safety

Communication and Decision-making Skills is the first cluster of CRM
modules. These skills are the primary core factor in good CRM. It is to build up
interpersonal skills in which crew will need to ensure optimal performance.
Personnel attending CRM must know that information must be requested,
offered or given freely in a timely way to permit accurate, effective decision-
making. CRM training will also provide knowledge on communication styles
used by others for interpretation as well as to determine the proper emphasis for
a response (Jensen 1995). With poor information due to poor communication,
there will be a lack of critical information or data which will subsequently affect
decision-making.

On 25th January 1990, Avianca Flight 052 crashed while making a second
attempt to land at JFK International Airport, New York (NTSB aircraft accident
report HK2016). NTSB reported that flight crew did not communicate an
emergency fuel situation to the ATC before fuel exhaustion occurred.
Communications was reported as not clear and the captain did request the first
officer to repeat information louder as the captain could not hear it. A fatal
communication error occurs when the first officer relay the message to turn
starboard instead of turning port. This massage made the B707-321B fly a
longer loop thus burning more fuel. Communications between the ATC and the
first officer clearly shows a misinterpretation about fuel level. The first officer
assumed that the ATC had acknowledged the low fuel status of the Flight 052
but in fact, the ATC interpreted the transmission as ‘Flight 052 has sufficient
fuel’. Words like ‘emergency’ was not used by the first officer thus it leads to a
different outcome of interpretation.

This air accident shows us a total breakdown in communication by the flight

crews in attempt to relay important situations to the ATC. The flight crew was
reported to have limitations in their individual abilities in English language.
Proper knowledge of CRM training which focus on inter-personal
communication will perhaps prevent this accident as the pilots may have better
proficiency in English language, communicate better and clearly,
standardisation of phraseology which will prevent misinterpretations and the
pilots may repeat to the other party about the message and make sure they
understood what the situation was before engaging in other conversations (Shari
Stamford Krause, Ph.D.), With good attributes of CRM, decision-making by the
captain or the first-officer to declare an emergency and seek for help from the
ATC might prevent this fatal accident. CRM training in communication and
decision-making allows aviation personals to increase team effectiveness,
reduces fewer errors which eventually increases the safety aspects (Helmreich,
Foushee, Benson & Russini 1986).

Communication and Crew Resource Management

Table 2: FAA required topics on CRM courses.

Situation Awareness Group Dynamics Workload Management
Effective Communication Risk Management Stress Awareness
Mission Planning Human Factors Decision-Making
Source: USAF flight Standards Agency. December 1998 (ATM06A)

The second clusters of skills will be Team Building. Team building consists of
two major concepts which are leadership and team management. Large aircrafts
like the A380s or the B747-800s are flown by teams not by individual pilots.
Teams are often used in aviation as the complexity of task increases as
technology advances. Teams are used to also provide redundancy in order to
provide an extra safety factor which is critical for aviation (Ginnett 1993). CRM
focus on how people behave in teams/groups. As people behave differently in
teams/groups as they do alone, CRM training teaches personnel to adapt to such
situations and to optimise performance rather then getting ‘affect’ from team-
working. CRM aims to reduce problems which might be created in teams such
as, bystander effect, conformity, social loafing, decision-making in teams and
groupthink (Jensen 1995).

On 23rd March 1994, an Aeroflot Russian International Airline A310-304

crashed near Mezhduretshensk, Russia killing 75 passengers onboard (ICAO
Adrep Summary 2/94 #4).The aircraft crashed after a captain allowed his
children to fly the plane. While the boy was flying, he inadvertently disengaged
the autopilot linkage to the ailerons and put the airliner in a bank of 90-degrees
which caused the nose to drop sharply. The co-pilot tried to remedy by pulling
back on the yoke to obtain level flight but the plane stalled. After several stalls,
the aircraft crashed into the ground.

This Example display how poor team performance can have disasters
consequences. Conformity affects the co-pilot as he agrees with the captain to
allow unauthorised personnel to handle the aircraft. The co-pilot knew that this
was against procedure and worst of all; to let someone without any
qualifications on flying to handle the aircraft. The co-pilot was perhaps under
pressure from the captain when he gave in towards the decision. Normative-
influence occurs in order to not to offend the captain. In another aspect, the
captain did not show leadership capabilities as he had breech safety policies to
allow non-pilots to fly the commercial airliner.

If the co-pilot had been properly trained with CRM, he would reject the
captain’s idea. CRM teaches a person to use proper communication skills as
well as assertive behaviour in order to handle such situations. Therefore, from
this example, we can conclude that CRM is critical and it will be able to prevent
such fatal accidents.

Workload.

These include concepts like mission planning, stress management and workload
distribution. Accidents often happen when workload demands are greater than
team capabilities. In pilot’s perspective, most accidents happen during take-off
and landing phrases. These phrases are periods on high workload. But
surprisingly, low workload can also cause accidents. In flight crew perspective,
during the long cruise segments, the pilots may be less attentive then when they
are working frantically. This low workload periods are times where
complacency is the most common. This is known as the low-arousal level factor
from the Yerkes-Dowson Law (Wickens & Hollands 2000).
On 3rd September 1989 2045hour, VARIG airline flight RG 254 made a forced
landing into a jungle near Sao Jose do Xingu, Brazil due to fuel exhaustion
(ICAO Adrep Summary 5/89 #11). The flight, a B737-241 took off at 1725hour
from Maraba towards Belem, Brazil. The flying time was approximately
45mins. The flight crew entered into the flight computer 270degrees instead of
027degrees. After 2hours of flying, the captain finally realized that they were
flying towards the wrong direction. Amendments were made to fly back to their
original route, but it was too late. The plane was 600NM off course.
Fuel exhaustion occurred which leads to the forced landing in the jungle. The
navigation mistake went unnoticed because the flight crews were reported
listening to the World Cup Qualification Match between Brazil vs. Chile.
From this example, we can see that how poor workload management contributes
to such an accident. If the crew/team manages to priories their workload and if
the crew doubled-check their computer inputs, such accidents will not even
occur. With quality CRM training, teams are train to follow procedures and to
double-check their work. Good leaders will distribute even workload to each
member’s capacity, in order to have optimal performance. From this accident, if
captain has ordered the co-pilot to make scheduled checks on the flight
computer, such accidents could be prevented. Distractions such as listening to
radios should be minimised. The pilots should increase their arousal level by
going through cruising procedures in order to have optimal performance during
cruising. CRM training for personnel will prevent such accidents which
increases aviation’s safety.

From the three examples given above which demonstrated human factors being
a key failure which result in massive destruction, proper CRM training must be
applied in order to increase safety in aviation. CRM knowledge will reduce the
above-mentioned slips/mistakes which will prevent the accidents.
The evolution of CRM training can be traced over three decades. CRM history
has been sub-divided into five generations (Foushee & Helmreich 1993).

First generation of CRM is started by United Airlines in 1981. These programs

emphasize on changing individual styles and correcting deficiencies behaviour
(Helmreich, Merritt & Wilhelm 1999). First generation of CRM is
psychological in nature with focus on psychological testing as well as
developing general attributes like leadership (Helmreich, Merritt & Wilhelm
1999). There are no clear definitions of appropriate behaviour at its learning
outcome of CRM training. CRM was also integrated with simulation training
known as Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT). During this humble
beginning, there are still many rejections on CRM training as they felt that such
programs attempt to manipulate their personality (Foushee & Helmreich 1993).

The Second generation of CRM was held by NASA in 1986 (Orlady & Foushee
1987). By this time, there are many airlines conducting CRM programs. The
term ‘Crew ‘was used rather than ‘Cockpit’ as research believed that other
aviation personnel would require such skills as well. This also began adding
more skills into its core program such as team-building, decision-making.

The third generation which occurs in 1990s display a vast number of

improvements. Human factors issues have been accepted and CRM issues are
addressed with concerns to flight-deck automation (Helmreich, Merritt &
Wilhelm 1999). CRM has been extended to other aviation personnel such as
cabin crews, engineers.
The fourth generation of CRM training are emphasizing on integration and
proceduralisation. One of the main introductions to CRM training at this period
would be the culture perspectives of different regions. CRM trainings are to
integrate with its local/organisational culture in order for it to have optimal
effect on performance (Helmreich, Merritt & Wilhelm 1999).

The fifth generation of CRM are heading towards a universal rationale

(Helmreich, Merritt & Wilhelm 1999). It is also known by many that CRM
trainings are countermeasures with three lines of defence for human errors. Its
focus has shift to the basis of limitation of human performances which in terms
will reduce human errors. Organisational culture is also one of the main
concerns in CRM in recent years as it enhances safety towards another level. If
company culture has been ‘safety first’, with CRM training, the results will
prevent fewer human errors (Helmreich & Merritt 2000). Again, Culture does
not affect its primary goals of safe and efficient flight. It is merely the
environmental factors which may determine the level of air safety at different
part of the world (Helmreich, Kanki & Wiener 1993).

After understanding briefly the evolution of CRM training as well as it three

main cluster of skills, we can conclude that CRM indeed serves it purpose to
increase safety. CRM has affected or influence the growth and development of
civil aviation in many ways.

Firstly, human factors topic added in to pilot training. Human factors have been
recognised as a ‘core technology’ in aviation. ICAO Assembly set the
foundation of human factor programs in 1986. In 1989, ICAO revise the
ANNEX 1 which from then all requires all contracting states pilots to be
familiar with ‘human performance and limitations’ In 1997, when the European
Joint Aviation Regulation (JARs) became effective, CRM is a mandatory all
professional pilots and those studying for their licenses (McAllister 1997). As
CRM evolves till today, it is recognised as a compulsory training for all pilots,
controllers and even other aviation personnel.

Secondly, with CRM regulation and its usefulness to reduce errors, aviation
training in airlines, flight schools, and military-flying has changed dramatically.
For example, airline pilots training is now focusing on training for technical
skills as well as behavioural and resource management skill in order to fly
safely and efficiently in today’s environment. Pilots are to know about human
strengths, limitations and small-group-performance in which they will take
advantage of them in which may reduce errors (Orlady 1993). CRM research
has also led to changes selection of pilots. Modern pilot selections are now
focusing on individual’s cognitive and psychomotor skills then their personality
factors.

Thirdly, CRM provides countermeasures to errors, thus Safety in aviation

equals to money for companies. Although CRM trainings are expensive to
conduct especially annually for personnel, it minimised the possibility that any
company will occur in an accident (McAllister 1997). By economical
comparison, training fees as compared to the cost of an aircraft such as an A380
is more worthwhile. Another major indirect cost would be customers’ reaction
to safety training. If the public thinks that particular airline is ‘unsafe’ they will
boycott such airline thus suffering financial damage on sales. Therefore, CRM
and other safety programmes are actually cost-effective and would end up
saving/earning revenue for airliners.

In summary, safety is the utmost priority in aviation even if it is safer then

travelling on road. Human factors are a great concern since the early days of
aviation as 75% of the accidents in aviation are caused by ‘pilot error’. CRM is
an application which reduces errors committed by humans. CRM training aims
to allow all aviation personnel to have effective team-performance which
consist of technical proficiency and interpersonal skills. CRM courses
worldwide are similar in terms of its content having three main clusters of skills
which are communications and decision-making skills, team-building and
workload. By acquiring knowledge taught in CRM programmes, slips or
mistakes will be greatly reduced in order to increase safety in aviation.

CRM has now been an intangible topic in aviation training. It had actually
started two decades ago. CRM has been sub-divided in to five generations. It
evolves as a programme concern with only emphasizing on changing individual
styles and correcting deficiencies behaviour in the first generation, to the second
generation with more core skills like decision-makings. The term cockpit was
changed to crew at this point of era as they realised that other aviation
community require CRM training as well. The third generation has major
development such as including human factors concepts into its programme. The
fourth generation integrated organisational culture into its context. Till today,
the fifth generation of CRM training are still evolving and consistently
monitored for any changes to improve in safety. CRM training now shifted its
focus to limitation of human performance as compared to the first generation
which is psychological in nature.
As CRM research continues, many regulatory and government bodies such as
JARs, ICAO, NASA and FAA have all recognised the potential benefit of CRM
and they have implemented rules to include CRM and human factors as one of
its core modules for most aviation personnel training worldwide. CRM have
globalised into a necessity in aviation. Secondly, training for airliners, flight
schools and the military diverted their focus from mostly technical skills to an
even-mixture of technical and resource skills for pilots as well as other aviation
personnel. One major influence from CRM will be the selection process of
pilots in airlines as well as schools. Selection criteria shifted from personality
factor to applicants cognitive and psychomotor skills. With CRM training to
reduce errors, it directly means having more profits for airliners. Safety is
money. With less accident rate, airlines will cash in more money as compared to
the cost of an aircraft. With CRM trainings, they may in one way attract market-
share which allows airlines to earn more profit. CRM and other safety
programmes are actually cost-effective and would end up saving/earning
revenue for airliners.

To conclude, CRM training has evolved dramatically. It has helped the aviation
industry to be safer in all aspects of the industry. As error is inevitable, CRM
research will continue to change and grow with its aim to reduce more errors in
human performance in order rise to another level of aviation safety.

Do you need SMS training for cabin crew?

Following the Industry regulatory requirements and best practices, airlines
need to have a program that ensures its cabin operations personnel are
trained and competent to perform SMS duties. This course provides the
required SMS training for cabin crew and enables an effective contribution
to SMS at the corporate level.

What is Crew Resource Management (CRM)?

Crew resource management, or cockpit resource management, involves

the effective utilization of certain training procedures and resources for
flight crews, cabin crews, air traffic control, maintenance and dispatch in
order to ensure efficient flight operation. Let’s learn more about crew
resource management and its importance in the aviation world.
Brief History of Crew Resource Management

In the 1970s, a team of NASA researchers began evaluating the

performance of airline pilots, discovering that over 70 percent of airline
accidents were caused by human error. With the goal of reducing
human-caused errors in the cockpit, in 1979, the term, “cockpit resource
management”, was created by John Lauber, a research psychologist
working for the organization. Lauber developed the idea that
crewmembers needed to take a more team-oriented approach to flying.

Over time, CRM has evolved and is now a global standard for the
aviation industry.

Crew Resource Management Goals

The primary purpose of CRM is to use all resources, including humans,

information and hardware, to mitigate errors and improve safety.
According to the FAA, “CRM training focuses on situation awareness,
communication skills, teamwork, task allocation and decision-making
within a comprehensive framework of standard operating procedures
(SOP).” We’ll dive into each of these.

 Situation awareness

Situation awareness involves having knowledge of your

surroundings at all times. Planning, prioritization and stress
reduction are all part of situation awareness.
 Communication skills

There is constant communication occurring between all personnel

and air traffic control. Crewmembers must have excellent
communication skills for this reason.
 Teamwork

Teamwork is very important in aviation. You’re required to

collaborate with your crew in order to get all individuals aboard the
plane to their destination safely.

 Task allocation
 Task allocation involves dividing up responsibilities among
teammates in order to accomplish goals effectively.
 Decision-making

In the aviation industry, decision-making is an essential skill to

possess. Crewmembers need to be able to confidently act in all
situations, keeping safety as a priority.
Each of these training focuses help create team performance and
improve the way we fly.

Crew resource management or cockpit

resource management (CRM) is a set of training procedures for
use in environments where human error can have devastating
effects. Used primarily for improving aviation safety, CRM focuses
on interpersonal communication, leadership, and decision making
in the cockpit of an airliner.

What do you mean by crew resource management?

Crew Resource Management (CRM) Training. The application of team
management concepts in the flight deck environment was initially known
as Cockpit Resource Management. As CRM training programs evolved to
include flight attendants, maintenance personnel and others, the phrase
Crew Resource Management has been adopted.

When did Crew Resource Management become an industry?

The ensuing investigations of United 173, as well as the infamous
Everglades crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 (1972) and the deadly
Tenerife disaster (1977) ushered Human Factors into a new era, bringing
the dawn of what we now commonly know as Crew Resource Management
(CRM).
‘

What is the purpose of crew resource management?

Crew Resource Management (CRM) is the application of human factors
knowledge and skills to the efficient and safe flight operations with the
objective of properly using all available resources (equipment, systems
and people). CRM combines individual skills and human factors knowledge
with effective crew coordination.

Who was the first airline to teach crew resource management?

Crew resource management. A few weeks later, NASA held a workshop on
the topic, endorsing this innovative training. United Airlines was the first
airline to provide CRM training for its cockpit crews in 1981. By the 1990s,
it had become a global standard.

What do you need to know about cabin crew resource

management?
CRM mainly encompass a wide range of knowledge, skills, and attitudes,
which are major human factors during flight (Aviation Knowledge, 2010). It
encompass a wide range of factors like communication, situational
awareness, problem solving, decision making, teamwork, and many
others which are pertinent to cabin crew during flight.

When did the FAA start requiring CRM training?

CRM training is now a mandated requirement for commercial pilots
working under most regulatory bodies worldwide, including the FAA (U.S.)
and EASA (Europe). Following the lead of the commercial airline industry,
the U.S. Department of Defense began formally training its air crews in
CRM in the mid 1980s.
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When did the FAA start requiring CRM training?

CRM training is now a mandated requirement for commercial pilots
working under most regulatory bodies worldwide, including the FAA (U.S.)
and EASA (Europe). Following the lead of the commercial airline industry,
the U.S. Department of Defense began formally training its air crews in
CRM in the mid 1980s.

b. CRM Training. The application of team management concepts in the flight

deck environment was initially known as cockpit resource management. As
CRM training evolved to include flight attendants, maintenance personnel and
others, the phrase “Crew Resource Management” was adopted.
(1) As used in this AC, CRM refers to the effective use of all available
resources: human resources, hardware, and information. Other groups routinely
working with the cockpit crew, who are involved in decisions required to
operate a flight safely, are also essential participants in an effective CRM
process. These groups include but are not limited to:
(a) Aircraft dispatchers.
(b) Flight attendants.
(c) Maintenance personnel.
(d) Air traffic controllers.

(2) CRM training is one way of addressing the challenge of optimizing the
human/machine interface and accompanying interpersonal activities. These
activities include team building and maintenance, information transfer, problem
solving, decisionmaking, maintaining situation awareness, and dealing with
automated systems. CRM training is comprised of three components: initial
indoctrination/awareness, recurrent practice and feedback, and continual
reinforcement.
Brief History of Crew
Resource Management
In the 1970s, a team of NASA researchers began evaluating the
performance of airline pilots, discovering that over 70 percent of airline
accidents were caused by human error. With the goal of reducing human-
caused errors in the cockpit, in 1979, the term, “cockpit resource
management”, was created by John Lauber, a research psychologist
working for the organization. Lauber developed the idea that crewmembers
needed to take a more team-oriented approach to flying.

Over time, CRM has evolved and is now a global standard for the aviation
industry.

Crew Resource
Management Goals
The primary purpose of CRM is to use all resources, including humans,
information and hardware, to mitigate errors and improve safety. According
to the FAA, “CRM training focuses on situation awareness, communication
skills, teamwork, task allocation and decision-making within a
comprehensive framework of standard operating procedures (SOP).” We’ll
dive into each of these.

 Situation awareness

Situation awareness involves having knowledge of your surroundings

at all times. Planning, prioritization and stress reduction are all part of
situation awareness.
 Communication skills

There is constant communication occurring between all personnel

and air traffic control. Crewmembers must have excellent
communication skills for this reason.
  Teamwork

Teamwork is very important in aviation. You’re required to collaborate

with your crew in order to get all individuals aboard the plane to their
destination safely.
 Task allocation

Task allocation involves dividing up responsibilities among

teammates in order to accomplish goals effectively.
 Decision-making

In the aviation industry, decision-making is an essential skill to

possess. Crewmembers need to be able to confidently act in all
situations, keeping safety as a priority.
Each of these training focuses help create team performance and improve
the way we fly.

Putting Crew Resource

Management into
Practice
Many industries outside of aviation that focus on team performance take
advantage of crew resource management due to its safety benefits.

When crew members utilize the resources available to them, it improves

the way they fly and helps them to avoid making mistakes. The next time
you’re traveling on an airplane, remember that your flight crew is not only
prioritizing your well-being, but is doing everything they can to ensure your
experience is positive.