September 29 was marked by another seminar in the School of Accident Prevention addressing the issue of “Aviation Transport Reliability Management as the Key Element of Accident Prevention on the Machine Factor”. 

At the very beginning the focus was shifted to the Human factor, though. This was how J.Malevinsky, the School leader, adviser and mentor on Accident Prevention and Flight Safety introduced the idea: “Investigating aviation events we usually blame machine – malfunctions, stalls and the like. But what has led to that? Or, to be more precise, who? We need a more profound analysis”. 
The opinion was shared by V. Romadanov, the president adviser on Airworthiness Prolongation. “The machine tends to be predictable and safe if you operate it carefully, precisely and thoughtfully, whereas in human hands it can become the main cause of problems. Human is ‘good’ and ‘evil’ for flight safety. A reliable prevention system is to be built on ‘barriers’ protecting us from errors. And I’m here not to teach but to share with you the experience”.  He then proceeded comparing two maintenance systems – a traditional system used in VD Group of Companies and western system – with precise description and distribution of every step to protect from incorrect or not applicable to a particular competence decisions. In reality our group of maintenance specialists sometimes works as a mini-airline facing and making decision far beyond their authority. The conclusion was illustrated by the aviation event happened 02.07.2015 in Ulan-Ude. At the end of his report Vladimir Romadanov presented a list of proposals on increasing reliability of the Machine factor in conjunction with the Environment factor and the Human factor.

The seminar participants admitted that the conversation turned out to be straight and meaningful bringing up concerns and solutions.

V.Mescheryakov, Head of the Expert Group on Accident Prevention and Flight Safety: “I would like to thank Vladimir Romadanov for his report. The issue is of vital importance now and goes far beyond  reliability management. Nobody’s been left untouched. I wish we would have more classes and mentors like that”. 

S.Morzhenkov, Senior Flight Engineer of The Flight Department:  “The issue is crucial nowadays, and the fact that it is being discussed by such professionals on the level of the president advisers is promising. The important thing is not to stop now, but continue working on that to achieve results”.

We are grateful to all the seminar participants for their responsible attitude to problem solving in the field of Accident Prevention and Flight Safety. We look forward to seeing you at our next seminar.