Three Major Human Decision Making Accidents

Question: Discuss about theThree Major Human Decision Making Accidents. Answer: Introduction The aviation industry is an international industry which requires decision making and execution at all levels. The decision-making, aimed towards customer safety and safe landing should be guided by ethics, situations and experiences of the personnel (Ferrell Fraedrich, 2015). Wrong decisions on the side of aviation staffs, irrespective of their levels, have already claimed hundreds of lives (Major, 2014). The upper, middle and the lower level staffs should frame policies which should work towards avoiding air accidents and secure the lives of the passengers and the members of the crew on board. The Singapore Airlines is an example of the organization structure in an aviation company. The organization structure of Singapore Airlines is led by the Chief Executive Officer, the chairman of the board, vice chairman of the board and the directors. The offices of the CFO, SATS, Tiger Airways, Secretary, Sales, HR and Operations, India, Product sales, Cabin crew, IT, HR and Sales marketing report to the CEO. The sales operations of France reports to the sales department while marketing planning reports to Sales and marketing department. The senior level management of companies are usually attributed with the power, knowledge and experience to take correct decisions. Their decisions are made up of business strategies which concern the whole or most of an organization (Anderson et al., 2015). The decisions due to systemic errors similarly affect the whole mechanism and have far reaching impact. The board of directors in the aviation companies, like any other company takes the key decisions and policies of the organizations. Their strategies in the areas of customer satisfaction initiatives, financing, product planning and so on are reflected in the actions of the pilots, ground staffs and all the other people present in the airport. Their lack of control and concern for the passengers are the causes of several accidents that have killed thousands of passengers (Hevelke Nida-Rmelin, 2015). Aloha Airlines is a Hawaii based airlines company which operated from Honolulu International Airport till March 31, 2008. Aloha Airlines Flight 243 which was Being 737 faced extensive decompression in air on April 28, 1988. The plane managed to land on Kahului Airport amidst lack of coordination or distractions between the responsible staffs. The accident killed a flight attendant and left 65 people injured. The investigation carried out by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) which finds out several active errors on the part of Aloha Airlines to maintain the aircrafts (www.ntsb.gov). The airlines authority or the decision makers did not carry on complete inspection of the flight in spite of the fact that the parts were showing defects. The sections stuck together by adhesives cracked and caused small cracks on the metal body of the air bus. NTSB also blamed The Federation Aviation Administration for not monitoring the quality of operations of the airlines companies under its purview. The FAA, in response to the investigation and findings there from, changed the pattern of rivets so as to reduce the stress on the planes metal skin. The safety board of Aloha Airlines, under the pressure of investigation from these two bodies issued its future goals to upgrade the quality of maintenance and inspection to avoid such accidents. The airlines company concentrated on enhancing its technical work force to bring in the advanced technology to maintain the aeroplanes. The company changed its corrosion prevention methods to improve the life of its air busses (Ni et al. 2014). The management reformed its flight schedules to increase the number of flights in order to compete with the other international airlines companies. The main recommendations of the board were to improve the skills of staffs to avoid such mistakes and slips. The recommendations also proposed acquiring of superior quality airbuses and ancillary units with proper licenses. The responsibilities and areas of power of the federal investigators were also enhanced to ensure prevention of such accidents. The accident became a subject of national interest which resulted in framing of new propositions in the aviation industry regarding maintenance and inspection of aeroplanes, especially the old ones (JOHN H. CUSHMAN Jr., 2017). The middle level staffs like the pilot and the captain are the ones who actually fly the planes. They guide, instruct and are responsible for the safety of the onboard passengers. Their main work is to fly the plane towards the destination airports and ensure the safety of the passengers in all respects (Johnson, 2015). Their decision-making power driven by technology and experience control the very existence of the onboard passengers. The Singapore Airlines Flight 368( SQ368) was an international passenger plane which took off from the Singapore Changi Airport on June 27, 2016. The plane took off but returned to the airport after receiving fuel warning. The plane landed by the engine 777 which sent fuel alarm caught fire but there were no injuries. The reason of the fire was an oil leak from the engine which on landing caught fire due to friction. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore extinguished the fire in five minutes but the wing was seriously damaged. The Air Accident Investigation Bureau of Singapore revealed that the fuel in the engine 777 got contaminated from the main fuel oil heat exchanger because of a fissure in it. The manufacturer of the engine looked into the matter and repaired the engine. The investigation revealed that the probable cause of the accident was flying the plane at a very low altitude. The pilot was flying the plane to simulate realistic situations very close to the woods below which was a wrong decision based on wrong judgement. The Singapore Airlines Flight 006(SQ 006/SIA 006) was a Singapore Airlines to take off from Singapore Changi Airport to Los Angeles International Airport via Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan. The flight met with a massive accident when it took off during torrential rain due to typhoon Xangsane killing 83 onboard passengers and turned out to be one of the deadliest accidents (HWAI, 2017). The ground staff cleared the runway 05L during the typhoon and torrential rain. After a second, the crew tried to take off from runway number 05R which ran parallel to 05L and closed due to construction work. The airport did not have ASDE, ground radar which could control aircraft movements on the ground. The pilot, in spite of hearing the instruction to land on 05L but land up on the runway on which elevators and bulldozers had already being parked to carry on the construction work. The aircraft suffered a massive damage and a fire broke out causing death of 79 passengers and 4 crew members. Aviation Safety Council of China conducted the investigation which revealed that the flight neglected continuous patrol of the runway and was not aware that the flight has entered the wrong way. The pilot did not check Paravisual Display and Primary Flight Display which caused the flight to enter the dangerous runway. The faulty decision making in the lower level caused fire and loss of so many lives but was denied by the relevant authorities. The Republic of China summoned the crew members for interrogation and only three members followed the order. However, no flight crew member was prosecuted. Singapore Airlines flight bound for Los Angelas only stopped over Tokyo Narita Airport. The flight which met with the accident was used withdrawn from services and used as a livery to promote Singapore Airlines. A survivor later on reported that the onboard crew members were not able to help the passengers due to lack of provisions and expertise, besides being gripped by horror ("Singapore Airlines crash report is disturbing", 2017). This crash pointed out that a wrong decision making at individual levels resulted in loss of so many lives and left many injured in hospitals. The anxiety and fear the acquaintances of the passengers suffered from due to the faulty individual decisions culminating into a horrifying accident is immeasurable. The three incidences stated above are examples of how wrong decisions at various levels caused irreplaceable loss of lives. The investigations following these accidents often point out to defects in the body or other parts of the planes or to the faulty decisions of the pilots. These investigations often attract the attention of the people in the countries where accidents occur and even from foreign nationals. The most common outcome of these investigations are the initiations of a round of blaming between the various airlines companies, government departments and international bodies which make interesting news globally. The real problems lie deeper and usually remain undetected under the mean sessions of allegations. The intense competitions between the airlines companies make them choose low pricing strategies to attract huge number of customers (Delaplace Dobruszkes, 2015). The big and expensive airlines companies of North America and Europe have are facing stiff challenges from companies like Air Asia, Indigo, Easy Jet and West Jet (www.businessinsider.in, 2017). These companies are forced to offer low price services and as a result have to cut on the quality of services (Barnes, 2017). These companies often have to increase the flights, so they cannot maintain the airbuses to the service pressure. The international aviation industry has hundreds of players of all sizes and caters to the world generating huge revenue. The aviation industry complies with several bilateral agreements like Chicago Conventions in 1944 and Open Skies concerning several bodies like European Union and Commonwealth, thus involving all the big and small countries. The airlines companies have to comply with several safety measures being prone to terrorist attacks and have already suffered several attacks. The aeroplanes consume high quantity of fossil fuel and releases high quantity of pollutants. This makes the industry subject to several environmental laws, both nationals and international. All these factors lead to a complicated network of macroeconomic factors having several strata. These factors, combined with intense international competition and profit earning motive leads to corruption (Itani Mason, 2014). The various government bodies claim money from the aviation company on the pretext of poli ce protection, export and import licenses and so on. The companies incur huge expenditure in order to gain preferential facilities from the governments. They, in order the make up the huge expenditure they often compromise on the inspection of flights and quality of manpower. They keep the prices low and cut down the facilities they offer to the consumers. These irresponsible strategies to earn profits at the cost of consumer safety often catapults in horrifying accidents causing loss of human lives and injuries. The investigations following these accidents often uncover these defects in the planes and their crew members. They are unable to unearth the role of the powerful segments that actually manage and control the aviation industry. The aviation industry is a multimillion market where hundreds of companies compete to cater the millions of customers all around the world. The decisions are taken and executed at all the three levels which have future affects. Wrong decision at these levels result in devastating accidents which kill hundreds and leave thousands injured or even disabled. Those accidents are often attributed to the crew and the technology while the top decision makers remain hidden. The decisions must be framed keeping the value of human lives and should always ensure safety of people onboard. References: (2017). Retrieved 21 February 2017, from https://www.businessinsider.in/The-10-best-low-cost-airlines-in-the-world/7-WestJet/slideshow/56204392.cms (2017). Retrieved 21 February 2017, from https://www.ntsb.gov/Pages/default.aspx Anderson, D. R., Sweeney, D. J., Williams, T. A., Camm, J. 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