As the engines fire up and the Airbus A321 taxis to the runway, you might feel nervous about the impending takeoff. Did the pilot run through the preflight checklist? Have all the i’s been dotted and the t’s crossed? Are the myriad of cockpit switches all in the right position—all of them?
Checklists enable the pilot to confirm safety critical systems and controls are correctly and consistently configured for a particular phase of the flight (takeoff, approach, landing, etc.) and help avoid memory gaps and prevent tragedies.1
For more than 30 years after the Wright brothers took their first powered flight in 1903,2 the concept of the preflight checklist didn’t exist the way it does now. The U.S. Army Air Corps instituted the preflight checklist after a prototype for a four-engine, long-range bomber crashed shortly after takeoff at Wright Field in Ohio (USA) in 1935.3 Human error caused the crash—the pilot forgot to release a safety lock.
The invention of the preflight checklist has since been called “a revolutionary new protocol that became the standard for the entire aviation industry.”4 Not surprisingly, NASA decided to follow suit and implement checklists, and Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins called them the “fourth crew member.”
But the mere existence of preflight checklists doesn’t prevent tragedies. A situation that bears a resemblance to the crash in 1935 happened almost 80 years later involving a Gulfstream IV that initiated takeoff with the flight control gust locks still engaged.5 The flight crew realized they were unable to rotate and attempted to reject takeoff, but the plane’s speed was too fast to stop on the remaining runway. It overran the paved surface of the runway, hit ground obstructions, landed in a gulley, and burst into flames, which killed all seven people on board.
What led to this disaster? It wasn’t a lack of flying experience or having checklists to follow. A top contributing factor, as cited in the NTSB accident report, was the “flight crew’s habitual noncompliance with checklists.”6
If the introduction and purpose of preflight checklists appears to have similarities to the introduction of the Priority Dispatch System™, that’s because it does. Both changed the way things had been done for years, introduced new safety measures for their respective fields, removed freelancing procedures, and made it so that the best possible outcome no longer hinged solely on memory and experience.
But it’s not only having protocol at the ready that’s necessary. Simply implementing the Medical Protocol—and the fire, police, and nurse triage protocols that have since followed—does not provide the best care for your callers. It’s receiving training, completing Continuing Dispatch Education, and being compliant to the protocols that enable Emergency Dispatchers to provide the best care possible—even in fast-paced, time-restricted, and stressful situations.
A review of the Los Angeles City (California, USA) Fire Department’s EMD data obtained shortly after they implemented priority dispatch in 1989, examines the impact of compliance vs. noncompliance on the correct selection of a Determinant Level.
Of particular importance is when compliance is under 100% for both Case Entry and Key Questions, the correct Determinant Level was chosen only 36.5% of the time. But when compliance on both Case Entry and Key Questions was 100%, the correct Determinant Level was chosen 93.2% of the time. Continue reading the Principles 6th Edition selection that follows for more key insights.
Sources
1. Lau, S. “Checklist Discipline: Avoiding the Simple Stupid Stuff that Kills.” AIN Media Group. 2022; Dec. 1. ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2022-12-01/checklist-discipline-avoiding-simple-stupid-stuff-kills (accessed Sept. 27, 2024).
2. Space Center Houston. “A look back at the Wright brothers’ first flight.” Space Center Houston. 2019; Dec. 18. spacecenter.org/a-look-back-at-the-wright-brothers-first-flight/ (accessed Sept. 12, 2024).
3. Kindy, D. “On. Set. Checked.” National Air and Space Museum. Smithsonian. Air and Space Quarterly. 2022; Dec. 21. airandspace.si.edu/air-and-space-quarterly/winter-2023/set-checked (accessed Sept. 12, 2024).
4. See note 3
5. See note 1.
6. See note 1.
