Yesterday’s images of passengers standing on the wing of a submerged Airbus in the Hudson River were both terrifying and phenomenal. That all 155 souls on board US (AWE) 1549 survived is a testament to the skill of the crew and first responders (and those great ferry operators).
Gary Hershorn/Reuters
A number of news sources have run profiles of the Captain, C.B. “Sullly” Sullenberger, describing his training and heroism. While his heroism is unquestionable, I found that I was more interested in his training – which includes an B.S. and M.S. in Psychology, and an M.P.A. Furthermore, Sully is an expert in Crew Resource Management (CRM), and he holds a highly prestigious role of a Check Airman at U.S. Airways.
Unit Structures readers may have a passing familiarity with CRM, as it is the subject of Ch. 7 of Malcolm Gladwell’s most recent book, Outliers. CRM is a management system that emphasizes communication, awareness and decision making by an airplane’s crew. As Gladwell points out, most modern air accidents are not due to mechanical failure, but rather human error (and largely communication errors).
Many of the profiles of Sullenberger have emphasized his history flying fighter jets as a factor in this successful “ditch.” As I watched video of the flight path, it became clear that this was not just a “skill” landing, but also one that drew on exceptional resource management. As Sullenberger takes off from LGA and experiences catastrophic engine failure, he faces multiple problems. He is in a very dangerous limbo (between LaGuardia Tower and New York Center ATC), flying in the heavily congested New York airspace. He is heading north and overland, eliminating his ditching options. Finally, he is above one of the most densely populated areas in the world, and falling fast. Rather than flying further inland, Sullenberger pivots the plane over New York City, avoiding other air traffic and getting over the river quickly. The touchdown was most certainly skill, but the decisions Sullenberger makes in the seconds leading up to it show evidence of clear thinking, good decision making, and tremendous awareness of situational factors. This is CRM executed at its finest.
CRM has played a role in mitigating other accidents and near-misses. Perhaps most famous is the crash of United Airlines Flight 232, which crashed while attempting an emergency landing at Sioux Gateway Airport (Sioux City, IA). UA 232 has completely lost its hydraulic systems, a fully catastrophic failure. Dennis Fitch, a UA Check Airman (with expertise on that particular airframe) deadheading on the flight, offered his assistance to the crew. Utilizing CRM, the crew worked together and managed to survive a nonsurvivable situation (185 of the 285 on board survived the crash).
What strikes me about yesterday’s accident and UA 232 is the similarities between Denny Fitch and Sully Sullenberger. Both are check airmen. Both are experts in CRM. Both have extensively studied Human Factors. Both are highly regarded, prestigious pilots within their organizations. And both happen to be exactly the pilot you want on board a stricken aircraft, because they have both the skill and training to handle the situation. With all of the cutbacks and setbacks in the airline industry, it is heartwarming to know that corporate still values expertise in cockpit.
If you’ve made it this far you’re probably wondering about this little topical departure. While I do admit to being interested in flying (you do it enough, you start to wonder about what goes on behind the scenes), it is pure coincidence I know anything about these topics. First and foremost, CRM and incident communications comes up all the time in management and org theory lit that I use in my work (my favorite article on the matter being Weick’s ASQ Mann Gulch paper). Gladwell’s recent treatment also provided context. But the real reason is that a few weeks ago I watched Errol Morris’ interview with Denny Fitch, which is riveting and spectacular. You can find it on YouTube (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6).
Fred Stutzman is a doctoral student, researcher and teaching fellow at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Information and Library Science. He studies how people use social media.
