Comments on: Checked, Set, Roger

By: Art Knight

Art Knight — Sun, 22 Jan 2017 02:28:41 +0000

As a Quality Assurance Manager in the food, confection, drug and medical device industry, I assure you I have created and trained people to use checklists. For example, a line clearance checklist to ensure the labels are removed from the machine and sealed, the product is completely cleared from the hopper and reconciled, before a different product is placed on the line. People simply sign off on it. Whether they figure “I know what to do,” don’t care or are simply lazy, they don’t use them. I can create the greatest system to be Six Sigma, essentially defect free, but if I am not there to ensure it is implemented it is not worth the paper I printed it on.

By: Achmad

Achmad — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 05:38:23 +0000

Great article- as always.
Could not help picking up the spelling mistake contained in the Airbus checklist.
Also, being pedantic, using uppercase in a checklist is great to emphasise a point, however, it loses its impact when every word is uppercase. Using normal case improves readability.

By: zafarmanzoor,

zafarmanzoor, — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 03:43:19 +0000

Excellent article.Lot of infos for the nonprofessionals.
The importance of checklists can not be denied in other fields also.
I work for a large petrochemical plant manufacturing Urea fertilizer ( ~ 7000 Tons / Day).This involves lot of hazards & dangers. For safe startup / shutdown & emergencies control at plants, the use of checklists (standard operating procedures) is essential.The years of experience of Sr. persons (pilots) is contained inside these ck. lists.
Zafarmanzoor. Sr.Exec. Pakistan.

By: Curt Sampson

Curt Sampson — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 07:55:01 +0000

Some systems take this a bit further: here in Japan you'll often see bus and train staff (drivers, conductors, platform staff) doing pointing and calling to check that things are in the intended state before performing the next action. This is apparently also used on the New York City subway system. It's an interesting technique that I don't think has been studied enough.

By: Lou

Lou — Tue, 10 Nov 2015 23:28:10 +0000

In reply to Daniel Ullman. IMHO as an airline pilot, profanity is often required.

By: Paulo Lavigne

Paulo Lavigne — Sat, 24 Oct 2015 11:55:52 +0000

I’m also surprised by the fact that checklists are not more widely used in other industries. They would certainly be very helpful in reducing human error.

By: Bwco

Bwco — Fri, 23 Oct 2015 18:12:07 +0000

In reply to Rod. Great article. My wife works in a field called Quality for a hospital. It involves analysis of incidents and how to prevent them. I have seen a couple of articles about airplane incidents and sent them to her. Its striking how some of the root causes between airlines and hospitals are similar.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Wed, 21 Oct 2015 20:55:32 +0000

In reply to Tod Davis.

I think you may be alluding to the previously mentioned Swiss Air SR111 accident. Part of the outstanding Canadian investigation asked this question and their analysis showed that the outcome would have very likely been the same. It is some years back that I read the report but this point stands out in my mind.

On the same topic, we have the benefit of perfect hind-sight and infinite time. A crew dealing with a problem in the present don’t have these luxuries; they need to troubleshoot the problem and make the best decision based on the information available to them at the time. From the SR111 report, the first indication of a fire was a faint and momentary wisp of smoke. Only at almost the end did the full extent of the fire become evident.

As with almost any safety action, counting the incidents that did not happen is much harder than counting the ones that did. We are unlikely to ever know how many potential incidents have been prevented with checklists.

By: P. S. Seshadri

P. S. Seshadri — Tue, 20 Oct 2015 13:34:08 +0000

Dear Mr Smith

In a few cases of accidents, the investigating reports have said that some items of the checklist were not checked or ignored. Is this overconfidence on the part of the flying crew?

I bought your book long ago and go through it several times!!

I am from Ahmedabad, India.

By: Pete Arthur

Pete Arthur — Sat, 10 Oct 2015 00:25:30 +0000

In reply to Rod. When I was learning to fly gliders, the favourite mantra of instructors when teaching emergency drills, was AVIATE, NAVIGATE, COMMUNICATE! Same idea as Northwest's 'FLY THE AIRPLANE'