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| In response to the Safety Advisory Group Recommendations of December 2005, the JAL Group aims to take further steps to improve safety such that our customers will feel a greater level of confidence in our ability to ensure safe, secure flights. |
The JAL Group drew up a medium-term revival plan in February 2007 based on two core safety measures — the building of a safety-management system and activities to prevent accidents arising from human error.
A safety-management system is a structured scheme aimed at maintaining and improving safety. Specifically, management pledges to follow a policy of making safety the foremost priority, studying the causes of accidents and incidents as they arise and taking preventive measures to ensure they do not recur. This includes detecting, analyzing and assessing all unsafe elements that could cause accidents and taking effective countermeasures. To prevent accidents resulting through human error, the company is implementing a variety of measures.
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Risk Management |
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| Risk management is the core element of the safety-management system, and the JAL Group has put the following risk-management measures into operation.
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1. Safety-Information Database
To analyze trends and pool data relating to safety incidents, the company has since April 2006 maintained a database of safety-related information reported from the Flight Operations, Engineering & Maintenance, Cabin Attendants, Airport Operations and Cargo & Mail divisions. Since fiscal 2007, JAL has also engaged in the analysis and assessment of safety incidents that have occurred within the JAL Group, made periodic reports of the results to various in-house committees and instigated measures to prevent recurrence.
2. Flight-Data Analysis
The company records and studies flight data to increase the safety and quality of operations and maintenance. From this data, we discover potential risks, develop measures to reduce such risks and monitor changes once those measures have been taken. This program is implemented for each model of aircraft, with the data being fed back to flight crews and used in the planning of safety measures.
3. Interview-Methodology Training
For accurate analysis of safety reports, it is important to obtain a highly detailed set of information from those who originally filed the report relating to the incident. Also, to ensure that the officers responsible for conducting the interviews are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills, the company has adopted training methods based on those developed by Boeing.
4. Research into Analysis Methods
To analyze the large volume of data from safety-related employee interviews and flight recorders, the company is engaged in joint research with Fujitsu Laboratories and the University of Tokyo into technology for detecting all areas at risk. This research is based on the statistical processing of key-word combinations from text data.
5. Safety Audits
The in-house safety auditors verify safety-related operational procedures from an independent third-party stance. Apart from operations in the cockpit and passenger cabin, all safety-linked operations from ground handling at the airport to operations at JAL headquarters are subject to these audits. If problems are found, timely corrective measures are taken and a report is submitted to top management. Audits of 22 domestic branches, 17 overseas branches and 24 headquarter divisions were implemented in fiscal 2006. |
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Accident Prevention |
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1. Reducing Human Error
In October 2006, the JAL Group launched a project aimed at reducing human error. Staff members responsible for safety management in the Flight Operations, Engineering & Maintenance, Cabin Attendants, Airport Operations and Cargo & Mail divisions are central to this project and work on developing countermeasures. At present, project members are engaged in improving education and training so as to reduce the possibility of human error as well as producing a user-friendly manual.
2. LOSA
Line Operations Safety Audit (LOSA) is a safety program designed to identify the background problems and causes of human error. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) encourages the adoption of the LOSA program among member airlines, and an increasing number of North American and Asian airlines are implementing it. To improve the safety level of all flights, JAL carried out a monitoring program of 435 international and domestic flights — the largest in the world — between April and July 2007. |
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LOSA-Implementation Procedures |
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| LOSA poster |
1. A specially trained flight-crew member boards the plane as an observer and monitors flight conditions from the cockpit.
2. The observer assesses potential inflight problems and errors, collects the relevant data and forwards it to The LOSA Collaborative (TLC), an independent body.
3. TLC analyzes the data from various perspectives, including comparisons with other airlines, and reports back to JAL.
4. Based on the contents of this report, JAL investigates and implements response measures. |
3. Policies
More than 70% of airline accidents over the past decade have been caused by human error. Since it is impossible to eradicate human error completely, measures must be introduced to reduce the number of occurrences and measures established to stop events developing into fatal situations. Where human error results in a safety incident, but JAL believes the error was not the result of negligence, the incidents are not liable to the punishment stipulated in the company rules. We have thus created an environment in which employees responsible for errors can readily report what has happened. The cause of the incident can then be investigated and measures devised to prevent recurrence. |
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