Management ultimately means calling the shots. In an airline organization, the decision making lies with the management team, in particular the accountable manager who has the authority for ensuring that all activities can be financed and carried out in accordance with the applicable requirements while establishing and maintaining an effective management system. On the flight deck, the responsibility lies with the pilot-in-command and, as in senior executives’ decisions, the tools matter.
The high-consequence nature of airline operations, the ever-existing threat of catastrophic failure, makes decision making a sensitive process.
A tragic decision-making failure related to flight safety is the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. Flight STS-51L was launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Jan. 28, 1986, but never made it into space. The shuttle broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, leading to the deaths of its seven crewmembers. The spacecraft disinteg…
