Jumpseat: A Failure to Communicate

Les Abend

Wednesday, August 06, 2014 at 06:59 PM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The article recounts two incidents where crew members' perceptions of situations—a hydraulic repair and a passenger's concern—significantly deviated from reality, leading to misunderstandings and complications.
The captain reflects on the critical importance of effective communication, objective listening, and directly verifying information to separate perception from reality, acknowledging he is "still learning" after decades of experience.
A key takeaway from both events is the necessity for leadership to engage directly with the source of an issue to understand the true facts, rather than solely relying on potentially skewed second-hand accounts.

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From my peripheral vision, I caught a glimpse of our flight engineer using his thumb repeatedly to push on an amber press-to-test light. I turned in my seat and looked directly at the engineer panel, taking note of the area causing concern. The area was the hydraulic system. One of the B-pumps appeared to be inoperative. That was a no-go item on the 727. And we were in Santo Domingo — not a major maintenance base. Great.

My copilot informed operations of our plight via the radio. I unbuckled from my seat and wandered outside onto the ramp. A mechanic had already opened the hydraulic access panel on the underside of the fuselage. After a brief conversation, he confirmed that indeed the B-pump had failed. Miraculously, a replacement was available, but it would be at least an hour before the task was completed.