Crew resource management (CRM) training for flight crews is widespread and has been credited with improving aviation safety. As other industries have adopted CRM, they have interpreted CRM in different ways. We sought to understand how industries have adopted CRM, regarding its conceptualisation and evaluation. For this, we conducted a systematic review of CRM studies in theMaritime, Nuclear Power, Oil and Gas, and Air Traffic Control industries. We searched three electronic databases (Web of Science, Science Direct, Scopus) and CRM reviews for papers. We analysed these papers on their goals, scope, levers of change, and evaluation. To synthesise, we compared the analysis results across industries. We found that most CRM programs have the broad goals of improving safety and efficiency. However, there are differences in the scope and levers of change between programs, both within and between industries. Most evaluative studies suffer from methodological weaknesses, and the evaluation does not align with how studies conceptualise CRM. These results challenge the assumption that there is a clear link between CRM training and enhanced safety in the analysed industries. Future CRM research needs to provide a clear conceptualisation—how CRM is expected to improve safety—and select evaluation measures consistent with this.
Sickness absenteeism among flight crews is a pervasive problem disruptive to operations and costly for the employer. According to literature, exposure to certain schedule attributes has been associated with adverse health issues. However, the relationship between schedule characteristics and sickness absenteeism remains unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study is to identify schedule characteristics increasing the odds of sickness absenteeism based on historical data. Here, data records for each flight crew member were obtained from a Dutch low-cost airline in the period between 1 January 2018 and 24 January 2020. Schedule characteristics with an adverse effect on both the circadian and/or social rhythm, as identified in literature, were extracted from the available data, and included in the model. Exploration on these potential harmful schedule attributes was done using two generalised additive models. After adjusting for the socio-demographic and work-related confounding variables, simulations revealed that employees exposed to night shifts, backward, and forward rotations over a thirty-day period were significantly more likely to report sick. Furthermore, employees who flew four sectors showed higher odds to call in sick compared to employees who flew two sectors. Based on the results, it is recommended to schedule either sufficient rest periods after exposure or limit the occurrence of the identified schedule attributes.
Pilot fatigue has been identified as a determinative factor in various safety events, leading to the introduction of Fatigue Risk Management regulations and standards worldwide. The scope of this study was to examine whether event and pilot characteristics recorded in safety investigation reports were associated with fatigue when the latter was stated as a contributing/causal factor. The sample consisted of 296 reports published by various investigation authorities and referred to safety events occurred between 1990 and 2014. The researchers conducted frequency analyses and Chi-square / Fisher Exact tests as a means to examine possible associations. Flight crew fatigue was found as a cause in 8.8% of the reports and was more frequently present in occurrences during evening and night operations, take-off, climbing, approach and landing phases, and Control Flight into Terrain and Runway Excursion eventualities. No significant differences were found regarding the year of occurrence, aircraft age, weight and type (jet, propeller, rotary), flight type (Commercial Air Transport and other), operation type (passenger and non-passenger) and event severity. Regarding the pilot characteristics, the more the hours on duty the higher the frequency of events where fatigue was recognised as a factor. No association was detected between the frequency of fatigue related events and pilots’ age, hours of experience in the respective aircraft type and in total, and, surprisingly, regarding sleeping and resting hours before reporting for duty. The findings only partially confirmed associations of fatigue with the operational, event, aircraft and flight crew characteristics included in this study, and showed that fatigue had contributed to (serious) incidents and accidents with about the same frequency. The results suggest a consideration of quality of flight crew sleep/rest before reporting on duty.
