On December 5, 2016, about an hour before his scheduled departure time of 9:30PM, Key Lime Air cargo pilot Lance McCaw told his company dispatcher that he was on a weather hold.
When I flew business jets, our annual recurrent included discussing how to deal with “difficult customers” in the CRM section. The N303GA report and various Forbes type articles from chief execs about how their jet always got in whatever the weather were key parts of the discussion.
I'm so glad your company addressed it! Pressure has been a documented problem in Alaska for a long time as well. Part of what jumped out at me on this accident was how the dispatch center was in the middle of the communications and yet the pressure still existed. I wonder if any of them at the company realized what was happening or if it was too subtle (and too much business as usual).
Commercial pressure is both difficult and subtle and thinking you would say no is easy but actually doing so is harder because we are nearly all mission oriented individuals. Our own desire to get the job done works against us, and the situations are very rarely the clear cut “kill yourself or get fired”. We have all made questionable decisions in the past in marginal conditions and mostly been fortunate enough to still be here to learn from them.
Great article. You're right, the pressure applied to fly by customers can be a real problem. Pilots should be trained to deal with it.
It's so tough and no one ever wants to admit to it, but it's there and unless the company blocks it, the pressure can be devastating.
When I flew business jets, our annual recurrent included discussing how to deal with “difficult customers” in the CRM section. The N303GA report and various Forbes type articles from chief execs about how their jet always got in whatever the weather were key parts of the discussion.
I'm so glad your company addressed it! Pressure has been a documented problem in Alaska for a long time as well. Part of what jumped out at me on this accident was how the dispatch center was in the middle of the communications and yet the pressure still existed. I wonder if any of them at the company realized what was happening or if it was too subtle (and too much business as usual).
Commercial pressure is both difficult and subtle and thinking you would say no is easy but actually doing so is harder because we are nearly all mission oriented individuals. Our own desire to get the job done works against us, and the situations are very rarely the clear cut “kill yourself or get fired”. We have all made questionable decisions in the past in marginal conditions and mostly been fortunate enough to still be here to learn from them.