The ASAP program at SWA is compromised
in more ways that one!!
Note to pilots everywhere: Don't believe what you write is confidential in the ASAP system. Pilots at SWA are in fact being disciplined. SWAPA's Casey Murray, President, and Tom Nekouei, Vice President, sent a memo to the pilot group discussing the many challenges and highlighted:
"In the case of the ASAP, SWAPA has had to put the Company on notice on multiple occasions due to their propensity to schedule disciplinary meetings despite ASAP and ERC [event review committee] recommendations."
"Disciplinary Meetings at an All Time High"
"The individuals responsible for creating our current safety and training problems cannot be the ones in charge of fixing them. And yet, kingdoms continued to be protected."
Southwest Management is using the ASAP system to punish pilots, while at the same time they are hiding behind it to protect themselves!
We all know pilots talk. And when those evaluating these cases are appalled by management's behavior nothing is sacred. Here we have a union upset that the company is using the system to punish the pilots, and yet management is running amok, withholding information from the captain, allowed a plane to operate illegally and then hid behind the ASAP system.
Situation:
Executives on a plane together. The VP of Safety, SMS manager, Mr. David Hunt, realizes his seat is broken. Legally this plane cannot fly until it's either fixed or deferred and unoccupied. As the head of safety, he should know this... right? But he doesn't tell the captain, instead he tells another executive on the plane, Mr. Landon Nitschke, who happens to be the SVP of Maintenance. Nitschke doesn't tell the captain either. These executives don't want to delay their plans.
What these executives do next is call the arrival station to have it fixed there. No write up in the logbook before departure. No deferral. No advising the flight crew. Just knowingly and willingly operate a broken plane. And these men are in charge of Safety and Maintenance at SWA!!! They both know the federal regulations and intentionally allowed this plane to operate illegally.
Worse yet, the SWA ASAP manager, Jim Ison, closed the case! The fix was to tell these executives they can't violated federal regulations in the future. This is intentional and willful neglect of the law.
Do you think this event belongs in the ASAP system to protect executives intentional violation of federal regulations? I don't believe so. ASAP was enacted for identification of human factors errors to improve operational safety. This event is pure negligence.
Personally I think both these executives should be looking for jobs outside a safety industry. The FAA should have pulled this report from the program and conducted an investigation. Why didn't they?
What do you think?
Should these guys receive a free pass because they are management, while the captain had to spend his day off writing an ASAP report to protect his license as the result of the willful negligence of two senior vice presidents?
Dr. Karlene Petitt
PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727
PhD. MBA. MHS.
A350, B777, A330, B747-400, B747-200, B767, B757, B737, B727
That captain did the right thing! It’s most feels like he was being set up? Great piece Karlene, really packs a wallop
ReplyDeleteI hadn't looked at it that way. I just thought they were being careless and reckless and didn't give a damn about safety. If they were trying to set the captain up, then they would have been hanging themselves in the process. I personally think this is the way the company flows. I think with their necks in the news, that someone would pull these two.
DeleteWhile attending indoctrination at Southwest Airline, Randy Smith (SW management) posed a question to the attendees; his question was “what is the most important contribution a pilot can make as an employee at SW?” A fellow pilot raised his hand and quickly replied “safety.” Randy Smith paused and said “good answer, but that isn’t the best answer.” The whole room seemed to tense up. Randy Smith then posed another question; “how important is safety, if an airline goes out of business?” Randy Smith went on to say that the greatest contribution a pilot can make as a pilot at SW, is to operate the airplanes in a financially efficient manner. That was the moment I realized that profit was always going to be more important than safety at SW because safety, doesn’t assure you can stay in business, and remaining in business is more important than anything to Southwest management, as that is the only way they get paid.
ReplyDeleteProfit over people. Safety LAST!
Delete