All About the JAL Group - Safety Operations

Kunio Yanagida
Chairman, Safety Advisory Group
August 30, 2006

On December 26, 2005, the Safety Advisory Group submitted a set of recommendations aimed at re-creating JAL as a company that boasts high safety standards. Eight months have now passed since we submitted our report, and I have spent my time attending a series of briefings at JAL’s operational locations throughout Japan, beginning with Haneda and Narita, and gathering safety-related data from on-site professionals responsible for safety. I also visited the Safety Promotion Center, held meetings with Haruka Nishimatsu, JAL president and CEO, and Kiyoshi Kishida, senior executive director for corporate safety, on August 10, before climbing Mount Osutaka, site of the 1985 crash of JAL flight 123, on August 12. And it is through activities such as these that I have managed to maintain a vigilant eye over the safety activities at JAL.

The Safety Advisory Group Recommendations presented the company with a series of severe high-level issues, and despite the fact that just eight months have passed since those issues were presented, I am happy to say that my findings show JAL staff have come to grips with the issues with an unparalleled enthusiasm.

I would like to make the following observations.

1. Organizational Reforms

.	JAL established the Corporate Safety Division, reporting directly to the president and CEO, on April 1, 2006, and I applaud the strengthening of corporate authority in order to protect flight safety.
.	I also give the company high marks for deploying staff with experience as flight crew and in maintenance at the Corporate Safety Division, along with full-time safety aides with board-of-director status, to create the opportunity for close communication with top management.
.	I would like to see the full-time staff at the Corporate Safety Division collect and analyze information on incidents and problems, report the results to the relevant work sites and relay them to other companies in the JAL Group. I would also like to see professional staff from each segment communicate with one another on a more proactive basis.
.	I want the company to undertake a detailed analysis of serious incidents and problems and make sure the results are reflected in safety measures.

2. The Safety Promotion Center

.	I applaud the move to establish the Safety Promotion Center as a positive development in the global aviation industry. The center displays the wreckage of JAL flight 123 from Mount Osutaka, and serves an important role both in not allowing the lessons of past accidents to fade and in maintaining safety awareness among all JAL Group employees.
.	The decisive judgment of top management in sincerely accepting the contents of the Safety Advisory Group Recommendations and swiftly moving to establish the Safety Promotion Center is a manifestation of the desire to put itself in the position of passengers and the families of those who have lost loved ones in air disasters, and make safety a central pillar of ongoing business.
.	I would like to express my appreciation for the fact that the trail up Mount Osutaka has been further improved.
.	The opening of the center appears to have facilitated greater communication between the bereaved families and JAL Group staff. This has been clearly evident in the words and expressions of the bereaved families who have visited the center and those who have climbed Mount Osutaka.
.	It is an important experience for JAL Group staff to visit the center and see the accident site with their own eyes, so that they can avoid treating the lessons of these incidents as mere data and allow them to make a deep emotional impression. This is evident from the following comments received from staff who visited the center. “I was able to gain a renewed awareness of the importance of safety by actually looking at the wreckage of JAL flight 123 and seeing the flight log.” “I am a mechanic, and my job is to perform maintenance work on aircraft. By viewing the panels on display at the center and hearing the explanations, I was able to reconfirm that the ultimate goal of the job I do is to protect the safety of the passengers.” I would like to see the company devise more ideas on how to effectively utilize the Safety Promotion Center so that understanding such as this is more firmly established among JAL staff.
.	Large numbers of technicians from other airlines and railway companies as well as researchers have also visited the center, which is making a major contribution towards an improved culture of safety in Japan.
.	I would like to see the Safety Promotion Center make the meaning and lessons of the exhibits easier to understand, while also increasing documentation and literature.

3. Changing the Corporate Mind-Set

To become a company that boasts high safety standards, it is necessary for top management, management-level staff and hands-on professionals to take the initiative and proactively pursue their duties. This was included as one of the issues in the Safety Advisory Group Recommendations, and we have since seen the following activities put into place.

1. In instances where flights from Narita Airport are delayed for technical reasons, the maintenance staff now make passenger announcements to explain the reasons.

2. Junior staff stationed at Kansai International Airport conducted a campaign to give departing passengers a send-off, waving a banner that said “Thank you.”

It is independent actions such as these taken by JAL staff that will lead to organizational revitalization and improvements in safety awareness.

4. Overall Safety Measures

.	I referred, in item 1, Organizational Reforms, to the need for the various work sites and group companies to share the information necessary to ensure safety, and I have been made particularly aware of that imperative when taking a close look at the incidents that have arisen over the last 18 months.
.	In organizations such as the JAL Group, which have complicated structures involving burden sharing with group companies and various outsourcing arrangements, it is not enough to merely relay information down the line. JAL is faced with the need to devise methods to have that information reach the furthest corners of the organization.
.	The company is also heading in the right direction with the preparation of a collection of case studies demonstrating unequivocal verbal communication techniques for use in confirming operational communications among JAL Group staff. This is a tool for increasing the communication skills needed to prevent human error. This collection of case studies can only be put to good use by reading and rereading the contents until they have been perfectly memorized and digested, and can be put into practice as second nature. It is my desire that every JAL staff member will use the case studies in this way.
.	Communication with air-traffic control is extremely important in ensuring safety, but a look at incident case studies indicates a variety of potential issues remain from both the standpoint of the flight crew and air-traffic control. As attempts are made to resolve the situation, I believe the company is making progress by increasing the opportunities for interaction between the flight crew and air-traffic-control staff. I would like to see the company increase these opportunities at locations throughout Japan.

5. Emergency Response Capabilities

Drawing on the experience of the major snowfalls of January 2006 that had chaotic results at Narita Airport, the Snow Damage Review Workshop was held in March, which brought together all the staff who were on duty that day. I envisage that this will serve as a major aid in heightening organizational emergency response capabilities in future. I recommend implementing simulation training with mock-ups of various types of incidents, based on the data from this workshop.

It is not enough for staff in each company segment to respond to the Safety Advisory Group Recommendations by referring only to the parts that directly concern them. In order to promote changes in the mind-set of all staff members of the JAL Group as well as those in the corporate culture, I would like to see staff make the effort to understand every one of the recommendations as organically interlinked ideas, before undertaking the necessary reform activities.