◼ Mandated protocols ignored
◼ Informal conversation leads to misunderstanding
◼ Death missed by a split second
Getting Safety Critical Communications (SCC) conversations right should be as simple as ABC. Each message in a conversation should be Accurate, Brief and Clear.
Take the case of aviation (not more flying war stories – Ed). Afraid so. When my flying instructor wanted to demonstrate a procedure, he would place his hands and feet on the yoke and rudder pedals and say ‘I have control’. In turn I would take my hands and feet away and reply ‘You have control’.
When he wanted me to copy the exercise, the procedure was reversed. And I must confess that replying ‘I have control’ always came with a slight frisson.
Accurate? Yes. Brief? Three words each. Clear? No ambiguity.
Of course, he could have said ‘I’ll take over now for the next demonstration’ and I could have replied ‘righty ho, it’s all yours’. Or handing back he could have said ‘your turn now’, with all the potential for me assuming he wanted me to turn onto a new heading before starting the exercise.
But we stuck with the formal ‘patter’, because at 2,000 feet communication needs to be ABC. It was also the expected professional behaviour.
Of cour…
