Runway: the Finnair blog

Have you ever considered what flight safety is?

Recently, a series of events casting doubt over flight safety has taken place in different parts of the world: namely, the accidents in New York, Buffalo, Amsterdam and Tokyo.

When the aircraft made an emergency landing on water in New York, no lives were lost, but the story hit the headlines around the world in the media and on the internet. Not much was said, however, about the fact that in the same country on the same day hundreds of people perished in road traffic accidents. . Similarly, when in Tokyo two crew members died, it was bigger news that the same city’s suicide total on the same day, which was much higher.

Yet where are the stories about the low accident record, aviation without serious incidents, flawless operations, precise compliance with regulations or comparatively low risk activity?

We will never escape completely from accidents, because mishaps happen to all of us – errare humanum est. A regulation is often a reaction to an event, so regulations do not exist for every situation. Regulations, moreover, are prepared by fallible people. Life can never be risk-free. Consider, for example, the risks involved in cleaning your home – or in not cleaning it.

The purpose of flight safety work is to turn aviation into a form of transport that can withstand unintentional human errors to some extent, yet without the level of risk rising too high. This is done through risk management, meaning continuous recognition and removal of risks or controlling them at an acceptable level. Preventive action cuts the chains of events that lead to hazardous situations. We strive to be one step ahead of Mr. Murphy, who was shown that if a mistake can happen, it will happen.

How is it that the youngest of the forms of transport, aviation, is so much safer than the others? What is the secret of the high level of flight safety? Licenses to drive or fly, tests to acquire them, official regulations and controls are common to all forms of transport. All commercial transport is handled by professionals who make human errors.

Already in the very early days of flying it was important that those involved in incidents communicated their mistakes to colleagues. Individuals learn from their mistakes, but an organisation cannot learn from the mistakes of individuals unless this information is conscientiously shared. This was particularly true during the war, and it is no wonder that 1944 was the safest year in civil aviation history up to that time. That was the golden age of piston engines, and all kinds of experienced pilots, engineers and other experts were available for aircraft – much more than the business needed. Through tight selection criteria, the very best of the best were chosen for each profession. The seed for the creation of safe flight-deck cooperation was sown.

International air transport arose quite quickly compared with, for example, sea transport. Flight regulations were harmonised naturally, and the trend towards flags of convenience familiar from sea transport has simply not appeared – at least to date. To this day, harmonisation is facilitated by intense competition between aircraft manufacturers. The piston engines have changed to one thousand times more reliable jet engines, and cruising levels have taken aircraft far above capricious weather systems.

Partly due to media interest, every air accident is studied very closely. An independent accident investigation according to international standards is conducted by experts and goes into every detail of the event. Generally after a year or so, the chain of events that led to the accident, and the factors contributing it, are revealed in an exhaustive accident investigation report.

An effort is made to learn a lesson from every link in the chain of events. Of course, the 30 accidents or so a year that happen in commercial aviation no longer offer much in the way of new information to an operator such as Finnair. For example, of the accidents that occurred in 2008, only six happened to jet aircraft made in Western countries, and of these most were to ageing aircraft and involved operators in poorer parts of the world where the operating culture has much room for improvement. It is possible, for sure, to learn something from these, but the emphasis in risk recognition has moved to reports of ‘close shave’ situations that jeopardise safety.

The reporting threshold is kept low by avoiding, blame and punishment of the reporter and keeping the focus on eliminating factors that endanger flight safety – it is in everyone’s interests. We call this a “just culture” model.

Elsewhere in society people try to cover up mistakes out of fear of blame and punishment; often no effort is even made to consider the reasons behind the mistakes. The consequence of this is that the error happens again. The high safety level of air transport is founded to a great extent on the fact that even the smallest events are reported. A responsible airline fosters this control in its personnel from the very moment they join the company. Crew and other personnel grow from servants to masters – from first officers to captains.

Do recent events indicate that flight safety has weakened? Are financial difficulties putting flight safety to the test? During recent decades, accident statistics have continually improved, but in the last 3–4 years the improvement has slowed. It has not come to a halt, however.

The number of lives lost has continually declined, because an increasing proportion of accidents are happening to cargo aircraft instead of passenger aircraft. The recent accidents cannot be laid at the door of the recession, because the effects of the recession will be seen with a delay, if there are any effects at all. Preliminary investigations of the accidents I mentioned above appear to support this view.

Good news amidst the recession has recently come from the German JACDEC Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre: Finnair is Europe’s safest airline. Globally, Finnair is also among world’s five safest airlines. The other four are Qantas of Australia, Cathay Pacific of Hong Kong, El Al of Israel and All Nippon Airways of Japan. Of these, Qantas and Cathay Pacific are in same oneworld alliance as Finnair.

As is evident from the above, flight safety is no simple matter. Long-term flight safety is a combination of reporting culture and risk management, quality assurance, cooperation and communication. It is matter of training, maintenance and constant checking. It permits human error, but it does not accept intentional deviation from set standards. All this is possible only through the accommodating influence of management and the profession approach of all personnel to their own work. This everyday work is facilitated by the correct working methods, expert employees and a modern fleet.

Have a safe journey!
Jussi Ekman