WARRANT OFFICER JOSEPH BARRICK
Detachment 1, D Company, 177th Brigade Engineer Battalion
Hunter Army Airfield, Savannah, Georgia

Are human error mishaps on the rise in the Army’s unmanned aircraft systems force? From 2011-16, there was an encouraging downward trend in human error mishaps for the RQ-7B Shadow UAS. But from 2016-17, that accident category jumped from 11.9 to 20.2 mishaps per 100,000 hours, an increase of 70 percent!

That year-to-year jump is not within the average fluctuation of the past decade. Soldiers in the UAS community look at the end-of-year human error lessons learned and often can’t imagine how these mistakes happen. They are very similar to a car driver pulling away from the gas pump with the nozzle still in the vehicle. Pretty stupid, but it happens all the time. These aren’t different mistakes, but rather the same types of errors happening year after year.

The appearance of these human error mishaps are rooted in complacency or a training deficiency. The aircraft wasn’t fully fueled, the landing inputs were incorrect or contained old values, the oil line wasn’t connected after maintenance, a remove-before-flight item was not removed, or the battery wasn’t charged enough before takeoff, just to name a few. All of these errors were critical and often overlooked by multiple personnel. All have published procedures and all were completely avoidable. Unfortunately, you can’t do a system redesign and remove the human element, but you can place an emphasis on the details.

The aircrews who commit these errors typically have experience on the platform. The repetitive nature of UAS operations tends to give crewmembers a false sense of confidence where they don’t always rely on their checklist/manual. They are all taught to use the book in MOS training, readiness level progression and during annual evaluations. The problem is they have done it hundreds of times. These crewmembers have shown they can fly or maintain properly and do not see the daily scrutiny leaders place on new Soldiers for basic tasks. All it takes is one time for that experienced Soldier to skip a step, to not do their due diligence or fail to verify steps of others when required.

It is essential to have leader involvement and individual Soldier discipline to reduce the errors. When was the last time your unit took the time to do an equipment emplacement lab where everyone was involved? Or gather all of the UAS maintainers to go over fueling procedures? Sometimes it takes going back to the basics to standardize the culture. Emphasize doing the right thing and keep discussing the errors others have made. Lessons are not learned if the errors keep happening.

Encourage leaders to look at how their Soldiers are accomplishing the day-to-day operations; don’t just focus on the end result. This isn’t an announced or no-notice evaluation. Soldiers will always try their best when they know they are being scrutinized. Take the time to observe how tasks are being completed. Note where they can improve and point out gross errors. Leader involvement shows that the little things matter. Empower your junior leaders to do this as well. Everyone slows down for safety when they have a little skin in the game. This is true for everything we do as Soldiers, not just UAS. It takes culture to reduce the human element.