Crew Resource Management

Crew (or Cockpit) Resource Management training originated from a NASA workshop in 1979 that focused on improving air safety. The NASA research at that time found the primary cause of the majority of aviation accidents to be human error, and further showed the main problems to be failures of interpersonal communication, leadership, and decision making in the cockpit. By the time of publication of our first editon of CRM, was celebrated as the convergence of a concept, an attitude and a very practical approach to pilot training. Equally important was the convergence and enthusiastic support of the research community, aviation regulators, transport operators and the pilot unions. CRM was maturing, implementing and developing all at the same time. Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) has gained increased attention from the airline industry in recent years due to the growing number of accidents and near misses in airline traffic. This book, authored by the first generation of CRM experts, is the first comprehensive work on CRM. Cockpit Resource Management is a far-reaching discussion of crew coordination, communication, and resources from both within and without the cockpit. A valuable resource for commercialand military airline training curriculum, the book is also a valuable reference for business professionals who are interested in effective communication among interactive personnel. Fifteen years later, CRM concepts have endured by not only integrating themselves into the fabric of training, but also expanding the team concept, evolving into new applications, and possibly most important to the original operators, inspiring development and integration of CRM into safety and quality assurance goals at the corporate level. A variety of CRM models have been successfully adapted to different types of industries and organizations, all based on the same basic concepts and principles. It has been adopted by the fire serv

Dr. Barbara Kanki served as a Research Scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Ames Research Center (Moffett Field, California) in the Human Systems Integration Division. Over her tenure of more than 25 years, she conducted human performance research in support of NASA Aviation Safety Programs, Human Factors and Performance for Space Safety, and a variety of Human Factors programs for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In a consulting role she worked with other high risk industries such as the medical and nuclear power fields.

Dr. Kanki’s research activities have ranged across human factors topics such as crew communication and coordination, organizational factors, information and workload management for aviation operations including flight crews, ground control, and technical operations. Her research interests include human-centered procedure and document design, integration and training for new technologies as well as safety topics such as voluntary reporting and event investigation. She has supported the space side of NASA in human and socio-technical risk factors, team training, and procedure design primarily for the space shuttle program at Kennedy Space Center and has participated on NASA mishap boards, safety assessments and National Transportation Safety Board human performance investigations. After retiring from NASA in 2014, Dr. Kanki continues to contribute to NASA projects and FAA/industry groups, and is the current chair of the Human Performance working group of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety.

Dr. Kanki received her doctorate in Behavioral Sciences from the University of Chicago, where she specialized in the areas of communication and group dynamics. She continues to author, edit, and review books, journals, and papers on human factors topics.

Joey Anca is the Human Risk Manager for Metro Trains Melbourne in Australia. Joey has a long career in aviation, having pioneered with Bob Helmreich the Cockpit Management Attitudes Questionnaire (CMAQ), when the known universe was grappling with the new-found pill of Crew Resource Management (CRM). Bob (the NASA/UT team, Joey and other aviation earthlings) took off into other safety-critical domains. Joey is a proud Filipino who has worked in a number of airlines and railways in Australasia. He lives in Melbourne, Australia and teaches Threat and Error Management (TEM) at Swinburne University of Technology. His day-job is keeping the railways in Melbourne safe.

Robert L. Helmreich is professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. He received his Ph.D. in personality and social psychology from Yale University in 1966. He has conducted research on group processes and performance sponsored by NASA, the Office of Naval Research, and the FAA, as well as research on personality and motivation sponsored by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute of Mental Health. He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society and former editor of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He was chair of an FAA working group to develop the National Plan for Aviation Human Factors. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on Space Biology and Medicine and Committee on Human Factors. He is Director of the NASA/University of Texas/FAA Aerospace Crew Performance Project investigating issues in crew selection, training, and performance evaluation in both aviation and space environments.