Chapter 13 - A Regulatory Perspective

Abstract

This chapter presents Crew Resource Management (CRM) primarily from the perspective of the United States (US) regulatory system, administered by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The FAA and other regulatory authorities around the world recognize the importance of CRM as a necessary and significant contributor to aviation safety. It opens up with a brief primer of the underlying philosophy of aviation regulation as a form of risk management. It describes the history and philosophical basis of some of the key aviation regulations in the US system. It then focuses on specific aspects of CRM—crew coordination and communication, error management, and flight crew monitoring. The chapter discusses how these aspects of CRM fit into the regulatory structure for equipment design, flight crew training, and flight crew procedures. A discussion of future examples is presented where implementation of CRM is important and concludes with a description of where regulatory material for resource management is applied to other areas besides flight crews. This propagation of resource management considerations throughout the regulatory material reflects the growing understanding of the importance of this area—but it needs to be even more widespread. Applications of CRM concepts to air traffic personnel, to the communication and coordination between pilots and ATS, among pilots, maintenance, dispatchers, cabin crew, and others remain important and can be improved even further.