From a Safety Outlier to One of the Best Airlines in the World - How CRM Changed Korean Air

Faculty Mentor Name

Cass D. Howell, Ed.D.

Faculty Mentor's Email Address

howellc@erau.edu

Abstract

Korean Air Flight 801, a Controlled Flight Into Terrain accident crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam. It was one the most common accident lessons in CRM training. Back in the 1990’s when the accident happened, it was just one of the numerous accidents happened to Korean Air. Korean Air was the airline that had the worst reputation in safety record in Asia and had planes falling from the sky every few months. However, looking at Korean Air today, it is one of the world’s best airlines, a member in good standing of SkyTeam, perfect safety record, excellent flight experience and widely recognized for its professional pilots. What made these changes happen? The answer is the deep revolution inside the company after acknowledging the importance of its cultural legacy. Korean Air applied systematic CRM training and used CRM to recognize and eliminate the root problem in the entire system. This paper analyzes the accident from a CRM perspective and illustrates the changes CRM can make and has been made to Korean Air. It tells the story of a company transformation from a safety outlier to one of the best airlines. It also tells the story of CRM in the past and at present. Most importantly, there are still many airlines in the world have similar problems like Korean Air in the past, this paper can be used to examine and eliminate similar problems.

Location

College of Aviation Atrium, Daytona Beach Campus

Start Date

30-11-2015 3:23 PM

End Date

30-11-2015 3:33 PM

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Nov 30th, 3:23 PM Nov 30th, 3:33 PM

From a Safety Outlier to One of the Best Airlines in the World - How CRM Changed Korean Air

College of Aviation Atrium, Daytona Beach Campus

Korean Air Flight 801, a Controlled Flight Into Terrain accident crashed at Nimitz Hill, Guam. It was one the most common accident lessons in CRM training. Back in the 1990’s when the accident happened, it was just one of the numerous accidents happened to Korean Air. Korean Air was the airline that had the worst reputation in safety record in Asia and had planes falling from the sky every few months. However, looking at Korean Air today, it is one of the world’s best airlines, a member in good standing of SkyTeam, perfect safety record, excellent flight experience and widely recognized for its professional pilots. What made these changes happen? The answer is the deep revolution inside the company after acknowledging the importance of its cultural legacy. Korean Air applied systematic CRM training and used CRM to recognize and eliminate the root problem in the entire system. This paper analyzes the accident from a CRM perspective and illustrates the changes CRM can make and has been made to Korean Air. It tells the story of a company transformation from a safety outlier to one of the best airlines. It also tells the story of CRM in the past and at present. Most importantly, there are still many airlines in the world have similar problems like Korean Air in the past, this paper can be used to examine and eliminate similar problems.