The Will Smith Safety Briefing
I like movies, and though it got a bad review, I really liked “After Earth”. Not sure why it got panned so badly, but Will Smith delivered another great one in my mind. However, I have to say, the ‘Safety Briefing’ he gave his son had to be one of the worst I have ever seen, even considering they had just somehow magically survived a high-speed reentry into Earth’s atmosphere, whereas one of our own Space Shuttles essentially evaporated upon reentry not all that long ago. But, Hollywood magic, suspension of disbelief, and a desire to move the plot along all come together to deliver a believable crash landing with two survivors. Hmm.
Avoid Safety Incidents Using SAP
Now, about that safety briefing. So you have a broken leg, and your only ‘help’ is a son to whom you haven’t paid enough attention. No problem. The safety briefing went something like this. “We are on earth, and everything here has evolved to kill us. So go take a 100 mile hike, and here is my over-sized knife or ‘Cutlass” with which to defend yourself. Not a phaser or poison darts, but a fancy knife. Not to worry, I got your back with a mysteriously working tactical situation and health monitoring system. Yea, right.
Speaking of Worst Safety Briefing Ever.
You knew I would bring it back to SAP, now didn’t you? Some of you might know that I have a background in MRO, or Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul. As it happens, I once needed to improve the rate of safety briefing compliance by first line supervisors in a depot aircraft maintenance environment in which I once worked.
Measuring Our Own Safety Briefing Compliance Rates
Actually, I had about 67 first line supervisors spread across three shifts, working 24 X 7 on various aircraft and components. For these particular ‘safety briefings’, the rule was quite simple; the beginning of every shift, much like the beginning of every flight, such as the one Will Smith was on, was supposed to start with a 5 minute safety briefing given by the 1st line supervisor to his crew for the shift. It was largely up to them what the subject was, but we provided err, ‘hints’.
Well, anytime there was a screw up on the floor, blame would be at least partially apportioned to the supervisors not having given the safety briefing. So I needed to find a way to prove that:
- They either had or had not given those safety briefings
- They were any good.
- Improve safety.
My Twisted Use Of SPC (Statistical Process Control)
To solve the first part, as I was sort of ‘up’ on SPC (Statistical Process Control) at the time, I decided to stretch it a bit and devised a way to measure whether those briefings were being given. Basically, think name and shame enshrined with statistics…. You got to do what you got to do. Today, what I was doing would be roughly equivalent to measuring Facebook AD Recall rates using a survey.
But why were these safety briefings such a big deal anyway. Just what is the relationship to Will Smith and ‘After Earth’? It comes down to the whole idea of everything being evolved to attack humans.
Flightlines Are Dangerous Places To Work!
You may not really be aware of this, but the flight line is basically designed to kill mechanics. Everything seems to move faster than the human eye can detect, pressures are so high that a broken hose can cause a hydraulic leak strong enough to cut through bone without you even noticing, until you do. Plus, it all weighs way too much, yet any motors that were ever added to help move stuff around were removed on day one.
Voltages are not only very high, the amps are too! And as a going away present, the noise from the jet engines, even with double hearing protection, can do some serious damage to your ears. Never mind the thrust at the very center of a jet engine in afterburner can hit somewhere in the 3000 mph range which can really throw rocks. The list of things that will bite you is almost endless. But nothing will kill you faster than inattention.
The Benefits of Working Outside
On the upside, you did get to work outside, where you can feed the mosquitos while avoiding snakes. And if you’re not happy with your skin color, you can change it, all you have to do is spend some time on the wash rack scrubbing the belly of an appreciative old F-4, or F-16, B-52, C-5 or C-130 with PD680 (If you know what this is, you will know what I mean). Then expose yourself to the sun, and just wait…all the while wearing a chemical warfare suit. You’ll have a brand new color, perhaps several of them.. Oh joy.
This whole concept of fear being a choice and thus unreal and the danger being real, just doesn’t add up to me. We were taught from day one of what was a very long, arduous series of technical training schools that the flight line and everything about it was dangerous. Fear seemed to be real to me or they sure did a good job making us fear it.
Notes, Warnings and Cautions
Just to bring it home, it turns out that all the technical manuals that are supposed to tell you how to do absolutely everything in your job are sprinkled with ‘Notes’, ‘Warnings’ and ‘Cautions’. Each and every one could usually be tracked to someone, somewhere, on a flight line, having either been hurt or killed or having damaged equipment - oftentimes, all three at once.
That makes me wonder how well the now not-so-new IETMs or Interactive Electronic Technical Manuals, which replaced the old paper books (and you can’t use them for your knees), actually work in terms of delivering those safety messages?
I am sure they work fine, and get better every day, but I am also sure the flight line, and operations in general, even though they are manned by some of the most highly trained people around, continues to evolve to try kill anyone who drops their guard, even for a second.
I am also sure those first line supervisors never forgot to give their safety briefing, everyday, and to make it a good one.
How do you start your shift?
Bet you didn’t know that a high number of accidents are caused by workers pulling out drawers from file cabinets, while seated, in their offices…
In the field observations.
Did you know you can actually use the SAP system to help you make sure these briefings happen? Let us show you how.
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