THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 28, 1996 TAG: 9610280039
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 163 lines
Despite 72 disastrous accidents, aviation was safer in the uniformed services than ever during the fiscal year that ended last month.
Part of the reason, safety experts said, is a unique ``risk management'' technique - anticipating and preparing for what might go wrong, or maybe even changing or ditching a mission.
The Army began using such an approach five years ago to reduce accidents of all kinds.
The result: The Army had its safest-ever year in the air, and the best safety record among the armed forces. It accomplished that goal so effectively that other branches of the service are now pursuing similar approaches.
And while major accidents - like the Air Force crash in April that killed Commerce Secretary Ron Brown and 34 others, and a May helicopter collision that killed 14 Marines - are harsh reminders that military flying is dangerous, the Navy's safety chief said the new approach promises more improvement.
``I'm not sure, in reality, that no mishaps is an achievable goal, but it is a principle that says I want to take care of everybody,'' said Rear Adm. Frank M. Dirren Jr., who commands the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk.
``It took us a while to reconsider how we do business,'' he said. ``It is not a program - it is a process, a way of thinking.''
In 1954, the Navy and Marine Corps crashed 776 aircraft, or an average of two a day.
In fiscal 1996, they lost 39.
That statistic underlines the improvements made in aviation safety over the past 40 years, but it falls well short of reflecting just how much better some of the other services are performing.
Four years ago, the Army had its worst accident rate, with nearly four serious wrecks for every 100,000 hours its helicopters and planes spent in the air.
Last year, it suffered serious crashes - those causing death, permanent disability, loss of the aircraft, or more than $1 million in damage - only 0.64 times for every 100,000 flying hours.
It was shy of the safety record enjoyed by commercial aviation, which in 1995 witnessed fewer than 0.2 crashes per 100,000 hours, but by military standards the Army's performance was unheard-of.
``Nobody has ever done that before,'' Dirren said of the Army's record. ``They are convinced the risk management program has done it, or has been the major contributor.''
The Air Force, with the largest aircraft fleet of all the services, enjoyed its second-safest year ever. Still, its rate was only half as good as the Army's: 1.25 serious accidents per 100,000 hours.
The Navy, whose air crews face arguably the most hazardous flying conditions of the services, came next with 1.79 accidents per 100,000. It was followed closely by the Coast Guard, whose two serious crashes gave it a rate of 1.8 wrecks per 100,000.
Then came the Marines. With an inventory of roughly 1,220 aircraft, including more than 700 helicopters, the Corps crashed at a rate six times that of the Army: Its 15 serious wrecks amounted to 3.87 crashes per 100,000 hours.
At the core of the Army's success is its recognition of an aviation ``given'': About 80 percent of all air accidents are caused by human error.
``The only computer that hasn't changed in the military is the one between our ears,'' Dirren said, comparing the military's emerging risk management mindset to programs used by private industry.
``It's a process that Norfolk Southern and Newport News Shipbuilding and all the airlines have,'' he said.
What it requires is that military leaders first weigh the risks in each mission ahead, whether combat or peacetime.
``Like, in getting a ship underway,'' Dirren said, ``one of the risks is that the wind is so bad it will blow me into the pier.
``How often does that happen? Not often,'' he said. ``But the severity of that is pretty bad. It can hurt people and ships and careers.''
Next comes eliminating all but the mission's most elusive dangers.
``I can't eliminate all risks in flying an airplane, or driving a tank, or getting underway with a heavy current,'' he said. ``But can I wait? Can I write a flight schedule with my best pilots in the toughest mission? If one of my pilots is having problems at home, can I leave him ashore until the problem works itself out?''
Two weeks before the carrier Eisenhower was sent to Haiti, its crew learned that it was to carry the Army's 10th Mountain Division, rather than travel as a normal carrier battle group.
``None of those soldiers had ever seen a ship in their life,'' Dirren said. ``That is pretty frightening. They don't know the dangers, where to go for general quarters and other Navy stuff.''
So the Eisenhower's leadership developed a plan assessing all the risks involved and how they would handle 2,000 soldiers and 140 helicopters aboard.
``The two months they were on `Ike' were the safest in the ship's history,'' Dirren said.
That kind of thinking, and his branch's safety record, prompted the Marine Corps commandant, Gen. Charles C. Krulak, to announce fundamental changes in training and operations last month.
``We must identify our core competencies and better focus our efforts on those tasks which keep strong the aviation side of our air-ground team,'' he wrote in a message to his commands.
Krulak called for more simulation training, beefed-up staffing, an end to delays in aircraft maintenance and more time off the clock for air crews.
Those measures, he said, ``constitute only a first step in our campaign to make Marine aviation the best trained, best equipped and safest aviation force in the world.''
Dirren's safety experts travel the road to look at aircraft squadrons, ships, submarines, maintenance shops and shore commands to get ideas about what works and what does not.
``We look at (ourselves) as paid consultants,'' said Dirren, a helicopter pilot himself. ``Our client is the commanding officer of the command.''
His staff tries to sniff out the good as well as the bad in maintenance techniques, leadership styles, incentive programs, training, routines. One squadron may write a better flight schedule that can be used as a model, may have invented a fine new training tool.
And they seek answers to sometimes unpleasant questions: Why, for example, have some squadrons gone for years without a serious accident while others suffer multiple crashes?
It's not luck, Dirren said.
``Some say they'd rather be lucky than good, but I think whether it's a squadron, a ship, or a shore station, there is a culture that exists in that command,'' he said, ``their values and standards, just the way they do business, that drives those commands to have phenomenal safety records.''
One P-3 Orion squadron in the Navy - Patrol Squadron 30 - has flown more than 32 years and 311,000 hours without a serious mishap.
Flying can be tougher in peacetime than in battle, Dirren said, noting: ``I think we do a better job in risk management in combat.
``Statistics will show we lost fewer planes from World War II, Korea, Vietnam and Desert Storm to combat than we lost in mishaps,'' he said.
``Something happens when you know you are going to be shot at. There is a tendency to do risk management better.''
The Army's effort has not been limited to aviation.
At Fort Irwin, Calif., recently, the Army's need to improve the quality and volume of training it gave its troops was accompanied by worries that a live-fire exercise would injure some soldiers.
It used its risk management techniques to better control the fire and improve the training.
``The next five battalions there in the following nine months had a 60 percent reduction in injuries and more training,'' Dirren said.
Thinking ahead, as good as it is, will be bolstered by coming technological advances, Dirren predicted.
A ground proximity warning system that alerts pilots of the F/A-18 Hornet and AV-8 Harrier to ``Pull Up!'' will be one lifesaver, he said.
Flight data recorders will be installed in all transport aircraft, providing more postcrash information than before. The boxes already have proved a valuable tool in improving airplane maintenance.
``We lost two F-18s - one Marine, one Navy - and within 48 hours we had the flight recorders back,'' Dirren said. ``That saved a half million dollars in salvage we didn't have to do, and it made the investigations a lot easier.''
In another case in which investigators believed an engine problem caused a crash, the flight data recorder revealed that the aircraft experienced an undetected rudder problem, said Dirren.
``We are convinced it is making an impact,'' he said of the new emphasis on risk management. ``We think it is a 10- to 15-year change, a generational change.
``We can learn from the Air Force, Air Guard and industry and commercial aviation,'' he said. ``I'm really excited about the next five to 10 years. I think risk management can cut the mishap rate by one-third.'' ILLUSTRATION: UNDERSTANDING THE RISKS
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The Virginian-Pilot
SOURCE: Department of Defense
KEYWORDS: SAFETY ACCIDENTS MILITARY by CNB