Air safety is no joke — real lessons from Nathan Fielder's ‘The Rehearsal'

The Hill

15 hours ago

It's fair to say that 'The Rehearsal' is not the aviation safety documentary I thought we were making.
I have consulted on or participated in scores of aviation disaster and safety videos, all with a pretty consistent documentary style that I'm sure readers are familiar with. That's the type of documentary I assumed HBO was making when I was first approached about the show. In retrospect, it's clear that I should have asked the producers more questions in the beginning, to understand better what the show was about. (And for sure I will in the future.)
But in this case, I'm glad that I didn't. It might have made me less willing to participate, and that would have been a missed opportunity to pursue a fresh approach to a longstanding safety problem.
Aircraft cockpit communication, the impetus for this season's show, is what initially hooked me on participating — specifically, the authority gradient that made co-pilots reluctant to speak up when they believed their captains were making a mistake, even when those mistakes could prove to be catastrophic. While the Federal Aviation Administration and the industry had taken numerous steps to combat this problem, lecturing co-pilots to speak more assertively and captains to listen more attentively, the National Transportation Safety Board determined more than a decade ago that these actions were just not enough.
Its investigation of a 2009 cargo flight found that a contributing factor in the crash was the co-pilot's failure to assert herself when she recognized that a go-around was necessary because of the unstabilized nature of the approach. The captain failed to go-around and the aircraft crashed. The lecture-based, assertiveness training she had received was just not enough, according to the NTSB's findings.
The NTSB concluded that 'role-playing exercises are essential for effective assertiveness training because such exercises provide flight crews with opportunities for targeted practice of specific behaviors and feedback that a lecture-based presentation format lacks.' It therefore recommended — as referenced in Episode 1 of 'The Rehearsal' — that the FAA require role-playing to 'teach first officers to assertively voice their concerns and teach captains to develop a leadership style that supports first officer assertiveness.'
The FAA never implemented the NTSB's recommendation. I believe the recommendation continues to have merit and its implementation could have made a difference in at least one recent crash where communication issues in the cockpit may have contributed to the accident.
But even if Congress and the FAA ultimately take no formal action — which would be a missed opportunity, in my opinion — the show on its own has raised awareness among pilots and those who train pilots. The reactions I have received from aviation professionals working on cockpit communication issues have been overwhelmingly positive.
They all know that while much has been done on this issue over the decades, the hierarchical nature of the captain–copilot relationship is a difficult one to overcome, especially in emergency situations where speaking up can look a lot like questioning or undermining the captain's authority. New approaches are needed, and many of the professionals I've spoken with are looking forward to using the show as a catalyst for improvements, especially with the younger demographic that the show resonates with.
I, myself, plan to incorporate the show into my aviation safety course that I co-teach at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York City. Most of my students are future pilots and air traffic controllers, and getting the conversation started early on these issues is important.
So, Although I was surprised (to say the least) by the actual episodes of 'The Rehearsal' when they aired, the conversation sparked by Nathan Fielder's show on two critical safety topics — communications in the cockpit and the ability of pilots to raise mental health issues without fear of losing their licenses — is beyond my wildest safety dreams.
I'm hopeful from these reactions that the show's message will resonate in the halls of Congress, the FAA and aviation entities large and small. And I am hopeful that it will spur a fresh look at these issues and lead to lasting changes.
John Goglia, a renowned aviation safety consultant, is a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board and president of the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association.