Friday, January 16, 2009

When safety professionals really shine.

You hear and read so much hogwash about Health and Safety. The training for Health and Safety is itself big business and many firms provide consultancies to industry to train their staff. One such firm is called Safety Reliability Methods and is based in America. It was founded by Chesley B. "Sully" Sullenberger, III who also works as a commercial airline pilot. His skills are top rate, a captain for a major U.S. airline with over 40 years of flying experience. A former U.S. Air Force (USAF) fighter pilot, he has served as an instructor and Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) safety chairman, accident investigator and national technical committee member. He has participated in several USAF and National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident investigations. His ALPA safety work led to the development of a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Advisory Circular. Working with National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) scientists, he coauthored a paper on error inducing contexts in aviation. He was instrumental in the development and implementation of the Crew Resource Management (CRM) course used at his airline and has taught the course to hundreds of his colleagues. Sully is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy (B.S.), Purdue University (M.S.) and the University of Northern Colorado (M.A.). He was a speaker on two panels at the High Reliability Organizations (HRO) 2007 International Conference in Deauville, France May 29-31, 2007. He has just been named a Visiting Scholar at the University of California, Berkeley.

Yesterday he was flying the US Airways Flight 1549 from New York to Charlotte, North Carolina - when following a double bird strike he landed the Airbus 320, with 150 passengers and five crew on board, safely onto the Hudson River. This was a textbook landing and everybody got off the plane safely and alive. He walked the cabin twice to make sure that everybody had got off.

When it comes to worse case scenarios you could not wish for a better qualified and focused pilot. He was sat at the sharp end and his arse was also on the line. Because of his other work at Safety Reliability Methods he was able to land safely, evacuate the plane, save not only his own arse but also the other 150 passengers and 4 crew. Well done Chesley, you are a credit to the aviation industry and are well worth your salary.
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