CRM

Initial Report

Aircraft was delayed due to tech issue and crew met in hotel lobby later than planned. New first officer joined crew, wasn’t new to the company, had 3 stripes.  A short pre-flight briefing was given by the captain but neither introduced the joining first officer to the crew. On board the joining first officer did not introduce himself to the crew.

Crew were concerned that if officials boarded the aircraft as sometimes happens or if there was an emergency they would not even know the first officers name. We are taught the importance of CRM in annual training and this is routine in our day to day operations. No CRM was offered on this day.

I asked 10 of the crew if they knew the first officers name or if they had been introduced. Only one did, they said they had approached the first officer and introduced themself in the hotel lobby.

I raised my concerns with the SCCM and asked them to address this. They said they wouldn’t as the flight crew had enough to deal with due to the technical issues with the aircraft and that they didn’t want to worry them when they had a plane to land 8 hours later.

They had ample time on the transport to the airport, and ample time during the delayed transit and the flight to introduce themself to the crew but chose not to. I also saw them in the galley at one stage. They made no effort to even talk let alone introduce themself.

Company Comment

Crew resource management (CRM) is underpinned by two-way communication between flight and cabin crew.  It was unfortunate that on this duty it appears the “two-way communication” piece was not met.  Our response is based on a down route scenario as the reporter referenced a ‘hotel lobby’.  We would expect the flight crew (whether new joiners or not, the same applies to cabin crew) to interact with the cabin crew during the inbound briefing, if they did not, then there may have been an opportunity to introduce the flight crew and the colleague joining the trip once the SCCM had finished their briefing typically delivered on the crew transport to the airport.  If the SCCM missed referring to the new flight crew member joining, another crew member could have reminded the SCCM at the end of the inbound brief.  If there was not an opportunity to complete the inbound briefing on the crew transport and this had been completed in in the hotel lobby or on the aircraft, then there may have been other opportunities to interact with the joining colleague such as a visit to the flight deck, use of the passenger address or request the cabin crew to visit the flight deck prior to boarding to introduce themselves.  Where colleagues feel that safety or crew resource management had been compromised, completion of a safety report is required for trending and feedback.  To reassure the reporter, there is no regulation which stipulates that cabin crew must know the flight crews’ names, however it is best practice when it comes to ‘team forming’ and CRM, all cabin crew have access to the flight information which includes all of the crew names to refer to if needed, during their duty.

CAA Comment

Good practice not followed and good CRM is not being demonstrated.