Risk Management Magazine

As the day moves along, don’t be afraid to take a mental break to rest. It is important to be rested and ready at the end of your day just as it is in the beginning.

A very dangerous part of the maintenance personnel’s job is the launch and recovery of the Shadow. This incident occurred during the recovery of an aircraft where complacency played a contributing factor and the crew chief was not following the proper procedures.

Sometimes, complacency and inexperience causes us to make less-than-stellar decisions. Thankfully, early experiences and failures in my personal career never led to a loss of life or equipment damage. What it did lead to, though, were lessons in the Army aviation safety risk management process.