CRM Effectiveness

Measuring CRM effectiveness in accident reduction is difficult. Because of attention to safety and increased equipment reliability, commercial air carrier accidents are, fortunately, very infrequent occurrences. However, from a statistical standpoint, it is not possible to perform meaningful "before CRM" and "after CRM comparisons with respect to accident data." Also, different air carriers use different aircraft, have their own CRM programs tailored for their specific operations, and have some differences in procedures. This makes it difficult to draw conclusions using "before" and "after" comparisons across all airlines.

CRM effectiveness has been evaluated by both the U.S. Air Force Military Airlift Command (MAC) and U.S. Naval Safety Center. The USAF data alone represented the results of thousands of aircrew, operating nearly 1,000 aircraft, accumulating 700,000 or more flight hours per year. In 1985, the USAF Airlift Command initiated CRM in the MAC. Five years of data from 1981 to 1985 was compared with data from 1986 - 1990. A 51% decrease in accidents was attributed to CRM training. The Beginning in 1987, the Navy provided CRM training (termed Aircrew Coordination Training) to all Navy and Marine Corps helicopter training units. This was followed in 1988 by CRM expansion to the A-6/EA-6 Intruder training units. Helicopter accidents were reduced by 28% and the A-6 Intruder rates by 81%.