Subtle Risks

As pilots, we spend a lot of time focusing on obvious hazards to our flight operations: convective activity, icing, low ceilings and other conditions. Pilots who fail to manage such risks constitute a disproportionate share of fatal accidents. These flight conditions, however, are not the only potential hazards that we should consider for the purposes of managing risk. Tasks and procedures required on every flight are also potential hazard sources and should be viewed through the risk management lens. These include such routine and necessary tasks as takeoffs and landings, even under benign conditions, as well as operations under calm skies in VMC conditions when there is still other traffic to avoid.

Key Takeaways:

• Pilots must extend risk management beyond obvious hazards (like adverse weather) to include routine operations such as takeoffs, landings, and traffic avoidance, as these tasks also present significant, often subtle, risks.
• Compliance with regulations alone does not guarantee safe operations; pilots need to actively identify, assess (considering likelihood and severity), and mitigate risks, even in scenarios that are legally permissible but potentially high-risk.
• Effective risk management is a continuous, three-part process (identification, assessment, mitigation) requiring pilots to define their personal risk tolerance and implement proactive strategies, including technology like ADS-B, to reduce both the likelihood and severity of all identified hazards.

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