It’s All About the Data By MSgt. Michael Austin
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n CY09, the Navy and Marine Corps had 127 Class C mishaps involving aircraft, compared to 103 reported Class C events in CY08. After reviewing all of last year’s Class C mishaps and investigations, I find one common element: a lack of situational awareness (SA). Poor SA, coupled with learned habits (also known as practices) during ground-crew coordination (GCC), often damaged equipment or injured personnel during the time-critical phase of aircraft maintenance/movement. Tow and groundsupport incidents alone accounted for more than a third (37 percent) of the CY09 Class Cs.
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A detailed analysis of the events reveals that the primary causal factors, in addition to a lack of SA, include: • lack of supervision • procedures not followed • poor judgment. The graph (below) depicts reported Class C mishaps. The data is broken down into three mishap sub-categories: aircrew error, material event (which accounts for “no-fault” weather and component failure), and maintenance error. Twenty-three mishaps were attributed to aircrew error, 47 were attributed to a material event, and 57 (45 percent of all reported Class C mishaps for the year) were caused by maintenance error.
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