A long-term view

This situation raises a number of challenges for all operators and pilots, ranging from the critically important management of risk exposure from high tempo operations to the longer-term challenge of producing productive and safe Australian application pilots.

From a safety perspective, the industry continues to rise to the challenge with AAAA stepping up its safety training and awareness campaigns, working with electricity companies on the marking of powerlines and trying to build other partnerships to buttress the safety performance of the industry.

Perspective is always useful when considering safety trends and while there may be an increase in incidents and even accidents during busy periods, the actual long-term safety rates continue to improve. A critical turning point for the application industry was the introduction of AAAA’s human factors training for ag pilots in around 1997 in cooperation with QBE Aviation Insurance and BAE Systems Tamworth.

The clear impact of this initiative on ag flying safety can be seen in the latest ATSB publication on the sector – the 2015-16 Year in Review. As the review identifies, “There are considerably less accidents each year in the past decade than in the preceding 25 years.” The work of AAAA to deliver, embed and reinforce sound safety behaviours is paying dividends.

However, this is no excuse to rest on laurels. AAAA continues to push new safety programs, having recently held early morning safety meetings in southern NSW and delivering the world-class Wires Risk Management, HF and CRM training days which are well attended. AAAA has also developed and delivered other safety courses including an ‘Introduction to SMS thinking’ and an HF and CRM course for maintainers and other staff.

Ongoing face-to-face work with companies through the AIMS (Aerial Improvement Management System) program is leading to genuine cultural change across the industry in a way that fundamentally addresses skills, systems and culture to support safety.

And if something goes wrong, the AAAA Emergency Response Plan and the Critical Incident Recovery Guide help members manage their return to normal operations quickly and safely.

AAAA is always looking to partner with other organisations – private and public – to bolster the industry’s safety performance and resilience.

A key focus for 2017 will be to take advantage of a new and improved powerline marker coming to market and encouraging energy companies and clients to join our cooperative safety team and get wires marked.

AAAA has been working very positively with Essential Energy in NSW for years on a joint safety program and any support from regulators and other energy companies in other states to encourage and facilitate wire-marking will be very welcome.

The reasoning behind wire-marking as a priority is science-based and built on an in-depth understanding of the human factors behind wire strikes through AAAA research. These critical insights include the obvious challenges of visual acuity, but also the weaknesses of all humans in coping with a lack of visual reminders, short‑term memory limitations, inattentional blindness, distraction and the all-encompassing but quite complex ‘forgetting’.

Over 70 per cent of wires are hit by pilots who had identified the wire and knew it was there. While potentially 30 per cent of wire strikes could be eliminated by improved identification, these facts underscore why a visual reminder of the wire that is already known is so important.

No pilot goes to work wanting to have an accident – a message that regulators and investigators continually need reminding of – and the work of safety researchers such as Sidney Dekker on hindsight bias reminds us that we need to understand how particular actions ‘made sense’ to the pilot at the time.

Over summer and especially over the holidays, give a thought to the professional aerial application pilots who are doing their best to stay safe while supporting our farmers and communities by delivering food for the nation and protecting us from bushfires.