(167a) Process Safety Aviation Series: And... Who Is the Pilot?

Process Safety Aviation Series II: And… who is the pilot?

The aeronautical industry have developed extensive research in causal factors and methodologies to mitigate risks associated to human factor. Pilots work in complex environments that require significant skills and deep knowledge of the way in which the planes and the systems that control them work. However, this may not be sufficient if there is no clear interaction protocols with the air traffic controllers and their own crew in crucial moments which could end in a catastrophe.

The environment to which operators and managers of a processing plant are exposed can be similar to those of an aircraft crew. The paper will refer to these similarities and will find aspects that relate the duties and responsibilities of airline pilots with those of the plant managers, bringing up also situations that have involved leadership flaws in incidents from both industries.

The paper will go over organizational and cultural aspects that have contributed to catastrophic accidents in both industries and will focus in the role that pilots and plant managers most assume as individuals to properly manage risks either in land or in the air. The document will look into skills and training required by pilots and plant managers and the way in which they need to relate to their crews in order to act effectively as a single team in an emergency situations.

The paper will relate the subject with key elements of CCPS Risk Based Process Safety and will highlight some requirements used in the aviation industry that could be followed by the Chemical process industry.

This paper will be a continuation of a document presented in the 13th Global Congress titled “Human Error, a myth hiding the real causes” that associates issues from the aeronautic industry with Process Safety. The aforementioned document was selected by Wiley to be published in the magazine Process Safety Progress.