Power of the Safety Pause

Beyond the Buzz (episode 4) - Power of the Safety Pause 

October 8, 2024 

Amanda Gullett:  

Hello and thank you for joining us for today's episode of The Buzz special thanks to the hive as we change what is possible in uas  

My name is Amanda gullet and I am a safety lead at Northern Plains uas test site today we're going to be talking about a technique called the safety pause this concept already exists but has been specifically adapted to uas using definitions from a variety of fields as well as over a decade of personal experience in uas including research and development training commercial delivery and military operations  

So speaking of the safety pause I'd like to talk about what it is how this technique came to exist in other fields and how it has been adapted to the uas at the individual flight crew and organizational levels to reduce overall risk increase operational efficiency and enhance an organization's safety culture  

so let's get right into it we have our definitions we have safety and pause safety is the condition of being safe from undergoing or causing hurt injury or loss whereas pause is to cease or suspend an action temporarily. when we add the two together we get a loose definition of a safety pause with a bit of a noticeable difference  

so what is a safety pause this is a conscious decision to stop current performance for a physical time that allows for additional cognitive activities we are consciously deciding to pause and allow our human brains to catch up before we make a response so why is this necessary as we change what's possible we are here making history and the history of science like the history of all human ideas is a history of irresponsible dreams of obstinacy and of error sir Carl popper was a philosopher and said this over 60 years ago however it is still quite relevant today although I promise that that is the oldest thing that will be referencing so we look a little further we talked about error but that's not the only cause of an accident we also have threat so we'll go into those definitions as well error is a pilot's action or inaction that leads to a deviation from an intended operation whereas a threat is an external or uncontrolled event or situation outside of the Pilot's ability to influence a threat is something that's outside of me whereas an error is something that's caused by me as an easy way to remember that however when they're introduced we all have a pretty basic human human reaction of panic so in order to be able to prevent errors using a safety pause we have to be able to identify which type we are when an threat or an error is introduced and our stress levels increase we either revert to fight or flight modes this is an example of the sympathetic nervous system face basically a way that we can overcome this human nature is to be able to take a solid conscious inhale and controlled exhale most emergencies allow enough time for a breath and I suggest that you do so prior to sending a command except in the most dire of emergencies I'd like to go a little further onto the threat and error management model while this may look familiar it's been modified to hopefully be a bit more engaging as we detail what leads to an accident at the lowest level we have avoid this is best it means that we're probably safe from some paperwork organizations can help keep it at this ideal level by having appropriate planning procedures sometimes though try as we may even with the perfect plan a threat may be introduced our our professional obligation is to manage threats as they occur we can do so using our combination of experience training and overcoming our human factors like what we just talked about however we are all human and we are all prone to errors sometimes a crew error is introduced and we're not only dealing with the error that's occurred we are also dealing with the threat that probably caused it in the first place while automation is the bread and butter of uas it does have its own inherent risk we still have the responsibility to manage error effectively and not over rely on our automation but it's important to discuss what happens with this additional level of abstraction automation has existed existed in traditional Aviation for quite some time and there is a decent amount of data talking about the additional risks Associated an independent study using uh the policies and incident reports of 16 carriers found that in nearly all cases the flight crew could either not comprehend what the automation was doing or did not know how to manipulate the automation to eliminate the error in all cases the crews were unable to return the aircraft to a controlled state in what they had deemed a timely manner this highlights the importance that if we can't recognize or respond an error or threat our equipment may go to an undesired State this is defined as the position speed altitude or configuration that is caused from a crew error and clearly reduces safety margins this likely leads us to a bit of an adverse operation of our uas I'm going to pause here for a bit because I'd like to talk about some personal experiences while an adverse operation is an fortunate state of being in it does not necessarily mean that an accident is this impending doom that we can't do anything about similar to threat and error the importance is recognition and response often drones will notify operators of the issue however if it's ignored or unknown we're going to lead to an incident I can share a couple of experiences from individuals that I know personally a time where this adverse operation was caught in the nick of time was back back in a on a deployment my coworker had inadvertently commanded a low altitude to an aircraft that was typically operating at about 10,000 ft she and her crew were able to notice uh that their aircraft was in an adverse uh operation as they noticed that the camera quality had drastically increased as they had gone lower to the ground they were able to realize that this anomaly meant that their aircraft was in an adverse and undesired State and they were able to command an uh command a climb they were in this adverse operation until they reached the AL altitude that they were supposed to be in but luckily they were able to recover the aircraft in time this is not always the case I have had an instructor uh during my military experience that talked about uh his aircraft while we were in an area that I personally experienced as having all of these terrain warnings popping up just due to the nature of the environment uh this particular individual had not heeded These Warnings and had not been paying too much attention to his aircraft and it Creed to the side of the mountain because he did not realize the uh current uh position and the positioning of the aircraft this highlights the importance because that particular incident cost $15 million and likely decreased the operational efficiency in an inopportune time overseas that said sometimes even with the best of situations we can find ourself with an incident and rather than just sit there with our mouths to gate we do have a professional responsibility to learn from these incidents and take that knowledge and help prevent others from doing the same we've highlighted the importance of responding to a threat or an error to hopefully prevent an incident from occurring I'd like to go over a little bit about that problemsolving aspect there's a couple of controls that we can have in place uh and then the cost Associated if we don't have those it results in a higher cognitive load and an increased likelihood of error organizations can poster the knowledge-based responses by having appropriate training to prepare them for a given environment for rule-based responses you can have proper Pro policies and procedures that you've probably trained on so that way your Crews know how to respond and you have those resources available in an emergency however none of this makes up for practice and experience if something is skill-based and it is routine it has the lowest cognitive load and is the easiest for a pilot to respond to that isn't to say that once you have all of these perfected that there is an additional risk we do still have human factors but by being an organization that inputs these tools you are going to improve the overall operational efficiency of your operators let's take some time to talk about how other fields use the safety pause while this may not seem the most applicable to uas it's useful to know that other organizations are willing and able to empower their employees to pause operations in order to allow for additional cognitive activities prior to returning to operations the environmental health and saf safety field at UC Berkeley specifically has a pretty robust program where they've documented how employees can use the safety pause to address concerns obtain resources and training and escalate to management for further guidance if necessary prior to return to operations their safety pause continues until either the employee feels that their safety concern has been met or until management has appropriately documented it prior to returning to operations in the medical field this is typically done at each shift change it lasts a proximately 10 to 15 minutes and the ongoing and outgoing Crews verify that the appropriate patients their attending professionals the processes necessary to provide treatment and that any patterns or Trends are passed along to the ongoing crew to help mitigate risk of an error sometimes the medical and nuclear Fields overlap for either Diagnostics or treatment their safety pause differs however in the nuclear industry if there is a discrepancy or concern the entire operation is paused and until the entire crew can verify that the appropriate patient procedure and site are correct prior to resume resumption in the defense industry this is probably the closer closest to uas operations but it is still pretty robust how they have used the safety pause to their benefit both the Air Force and navy have utilized the safety pause to combat combat safety issues in 2008 and 2022 respectively unlike the relatively short safety pauses utilized in the Collegiate and medical applications talked about previously these pauses lasted up to 6 months before Crews return to the flight operations they verified that they they had the appropriate risk management practices threat and error management and general training necessary to return to operations prior to a full return if the mind of a military branch can pause operations a bit for a breather particularly for these extended periods of time it's likely that your organized ation will be able to do so in some capacity so let's take a step back and talk about how the safety pause can be used as the at the individual level as a professional you do have a responsibility to understand your role and expectations but you are only human and you have to be able to recognize as much in order to respond so please be mindful of your limitations take that breath that we talked about earlier a full inhale exhale and then perform your Aviation duties aviate navigate and communicate take your responses as necessary be mindful of your limitations and do what you do best at the flight crew level we're probably closest to those medical safety pauses typically at shift changes or at an ongoing or off-going crew there are safety briefs we encourage that you utilize and participate in these briefs to ensure that you have have the appropriate resources and procedures and training necessary to conduct your flight we encourage that you train collaboratively train with your crew and ensure that you can respond as a cohesive unit if necessary you are also encouraged to pause and rebrief operations as needed and last but not least organizational leadership organizational leadership can help reduce threat and Errors By having appropriate policy and procedures and training to reduce cognitive load as discussed earlier you can also help by empowering your Crews and training them on techniques such as the safety pause as well as other risk mitigation techniques and also please encourage your employees to drive continuous Improvement if there are accidents make sure you learn from them and don't forget that the right response is usually better than the fastest response take that as you will but thank you for joining for today's episode of The Buzz please comment if you would like any of these resources please reach out and engage with Northern Plains uas test site directly thank you