CHECKLIST USAGE

The Safety Department has recently heard, both in CRM and on hazard reports, that checklists are not being used for all phases of flight. The concerns that we have heard relate to both Captains and First Officers and are from both the Midwest and the East Coast. At best, this is a practice that could lead to embarrassment. At worst, it could lead to an incident or accident.

Granted you perform the same checklists every time you fly and you know them by heart. (Perhaps we should change them to make them more interesting or challenging.) However, they are there to prevent you from hurting yourself and others. One recent report concerns the radar consistently being left on after the aircraft has been parked. This checklist item appears on the After Landing Checklist (STBY) and on the Terminating Flow. This condition is not a problem as long as the automatic circuitry functions properly. Failing that the radar would be transmitting with people walking around the aircraft and servicing being conducted.

Some Human Factors information to think about. Error is an inevitable result of human limitation. For the study of crew errors, they can be put into five classifications. Procedural, communication, proficiency, decision, and intentional non-compliance errors. Failing to complete a checklist would fall under intentional non-compliance. A recent study compared two groups of crews. Those who had no observed non-compliance events and those who had at least one (1) non-compliance event. The study then compared the number of other ( other than intentional non-compliance) errors committed by each group. The results showed that crews with an intentional non-compliance error were almost twice as likely to make other types of errors and that these other errors were twice as likely to be consequential. Thus crews who make intentional non-compliance errors put the crew, passengers, and organization at a substantially greater risk.