Blue Coral Copter Caper

Blue Coral Copter Caper

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Blue Coral Copter Caper

Assessment of Situation

The Blue Coral Copters is a company that represents the height of informality and unprofessional conduct among owners of air travel companies. The company was formed by a group of rich investors looking to maximize their wealth and enjoy their lives. Therefore, the overall leadership of the tours company is very lackluster, neglectful, and substandard. The employee base consists of pilots and mechanics that are not fully qualified according to federal standards to fly helicopters over public air space. Pilots lack the necessary documentation to certify their skills as airplane handlers. The same employees have also neglected the obligation to take regular refresher flying courses. The employee evaluation process for Blue Coral Copters involves a brief interview with one of the owners. The flight plans and daily weather conditions are administered by Nick Doobie who collects and organizes this information from dubious sources such as the Internet. While the owner is very cautious, most of his line employees and pilots fail to implement rigorous safety standards within their practice. Several safety incidences go unreported within the course of conducting tours. This poor incident reporting system also affects the inventory and line management system that suffers from disjointed communication procedures. The maintenance area for the helicopters is mismanaged presenting several physical risks to the staff and equipment. There is little accountability in terms of bookkeeping, flight logs, and safety information. In conclusion, Blue Coral Copters is in dire need of a safety evaluation and restructuring process.

Analysis

The implementation of safety measures within an organization is an important aspect that holds great consequences for operation and productivity goals. Safety management systems (SMS) can therefore be described as a comprehensive set of procedures, rules, and regimes that manage the implementation and evaluation of safety aspects within an establishment. SMS offer a systematic way of recognizing dangers and mitigating risks while upholding the confidence that these hazard solutions are viable and practical (Barling, & Frone, 2004). One of the major aspects in most versions of safety documentation is the presence of a written corporate safety policy. This type of safety policy requires the full responsibility and contribution of upper level management. The document captures comprehensive executive obligations, both administrative and voluntary concerning the idea of system safety. This measure is designed in a manner that ensures the introduction and implementation of high safety (Barling, & Frone, 2004). The policy document must outline the level of commitment by management in the recognition of the answerable corporate departments that administer these different functions (Howell, Van, & National Research Council, 2007). The main objective of a documented safety policy is the development of a management system that can mitigate or eradicate damage and injury to clients and company assets.

Blue Coral Copters had a similar document that was called a ‘safety manual’. However, the integrity of the document was highly questionable. For one, it was lifted almost completely from another safety manual that was designed for a mainland charter company. Therefore, it contained many aspects that would be irrelevant for Blue Coral since they were two different companies in terms of services and structure. Two, the safety manual was outdated making it less useful. Over the years, numerous aspects of safety such as employee rights and working conditions have changed while the manual remained the same. Lastly, a company safety policy encompasses more than the basic manual (Howell et al., 2007). It covers other tertiary aspects such as adherence to company regulations, disciplinary measures, and ethical decision-making. The absence of a company safety policy reduces the chances of safety and professional standards.

The role played by safety review system in an organization is perhaps more significant than the actual safety program. The autonomy of the safety aspect within the overall company structure is fundamental if the function is expected to achieve positive outcomes concerning analysis of prospective air tour dangers (Howell et al., 2007). There is a need to separate the office of the safety director from that of the remaining executives. This will provide the much-needed autonomy and authority to investigate and make recommendations on the state of the company’s safety measures without bias or influence. Closely related to this point is the need for a review system within organizations. Simply adopting safety measures without the proper review systems is a plan that is bound to fail in the long term. Blue Coral Copters lacked the office of a safety director as well as the necessary autonomy by the delegated employee to conduct effective review of the safety measures. In fact, the owner, Nick Doobie also administered the services of the safety director. This created a conflict of interest since he became negligent of the apparent safety hazards such as reported accidents, mishaps on air and slackness in the recording of flight records and maintenance sessions.

Safety management demands that an organization should recognize and assess the severity and predictability of risks within their fields of operation before they actually occur. A risk represents anything with the inherent ability to cause injury or damage (Howell et al., 2007). It is frequently the outcome of a failure in the mechanical or technological parts of resources used in the trade. Thorough analysis must entail a focus on the latency of the hazard to the clients while still predictable by the service provider and the influence on both parties (Barling, & Frone, 2004). Service provider must proceed with additional vigilance when addressing risks that are not instantly obvious to the user. Blue Coral Copters is always operating in a state of constant exposure to risks. The aviation industry is laden with numerous risks even for companies that implement high levels f safety. Conversely, Blue Coral had done little to correct the existing and foreseeable risks to their tourist clients and pilots. Several high-risk accidents such as helicopter doors opening mid air and interference with the machine’s engines were never reported. Risky incidents that involved pilots crashing into objects and exposing customers to a volatile volcano were regarded as ‘exciting’ rather than life threatening. Even in such cases where the accidents and incidents were caused by negligent and risky behavior, little was done to avert future repetition of the same cases. This illustrates the poor risk analysis systems adopted by the sightseeing company. The need to maintain a high level of risk aversion among the personnel is insignificant. This attitude is reflected in the maintenance function of the company where most of the repairs are done only after problems start emerging. Their “fix-and-fly” approach summarizes the lack of foresight within Blue Coral that creates numerous opportunities for accidents or legal lawsuits against them.

Recommendations

            Blue Coral Copters should facilitate the formulation of a functional written corporate safety policy. The state of affairs in the sightseeing company easily qualifies it for a robust and updated company safety policy. Most of the fundamental activities that take place in the enterprise such as aircraft maintenance, record keeping, and personnel feedback lack an aspect of organization and purpose (Hanks, 2011). This lack of direction allows all the employees and the administrator/owner to act in their own discretion. Formulating a corporate safety policy document under the direction of a qualified expert in the field such as agency representatives from OSHA, FAA and ERAU as well as internal departmental heads will result in a comprehensive strategy that will reduce threats or even eliminate them. In the case of Blue Coral Copters, there is a need to

A related solution towards solving the safety problem in Blue Coral is outlining the responsibilities of different managers within the company (Hanks, 2011). The company is currently exhibiting a massive number of federal safety violations because of the mismanagement caused by one individual making all the important decisions. The sightseeing company needs to reorganize their administrative responsibilities and ensure that the roles are redefined (Howell et al., 2007). In this way, the owner, Nick Doobie can be relived of most of the duties in which he is incompetent. Furthermore, this procedure will also introduce professionalism within the organization as the need for experts arises. By employing professionals that are learned and experienced in aircraft maintenance, public relations, law and other weak areas in Blue Coral, the company has a massive chance of ensuring that they are not closed down for violating safety regulations.

Blue Coral Copters should adopt an element of professionalism in their operations. In this context, professionalism involves the combination of character, excellence, attitude, proper conduct, and competency within all employees of the organization. Blue Coral employees need to increase their level of accountability, be honest, and follow up on their commitments to the organization. This will decrease instances of absent records in the logs as well as indiscipline cases. Their attitude towards the job also needs to be polished to improve their respect for other people’s interests and respecting their wishes (Hanks, 2011). Given that the demands for this recommendation are broad, it may require the development of a training program for several days. The training program is administered by external specialists dealing with workplace safety and will include the different aspects within the curriculum. Evaluation exercises can also be conducted after the training is completed to ensure that all employees have grasped the information well. Most of the employees will exhibit positive change given that some were not exposed to any type of standardized aviation and bureaucracy training before being employed at Blue Coral Copters.

In conclusion, Blue Coral Copters is a perfect example of the levels that workplace safety can deteriorate and its financial consequences on the company (Howell et al., 2007). The case study also illustrates the problems that originate from adopting a laissez faire approach towards managing an aviation company, or any other organization for that matter. What is clear is that safety issues are a major aspect of operation for all businesses particularly those that deal with human beings directly (Hanks, 2011). Making assumptions or neglecting the grave safety violations can result in the revoking of a business license or even a hefty lawsuit against the owner. The owner of Blue Coral Copters, Nick Doobie had assumed that all was well until an FAA inspection proved him wrong. Companies should seek to implement a risk analysis program in their operations to reduce or eliminate potential threats.

References

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Barling, J., & Frone, M. R. (2004). The psychology of workplace safety. Washington, D.C: American Psychological Association.

Hanks, R. G. (January 01, 2011). Implementing management systems for aviation safety. Fire Management Today.

Howell, W. C., Van, H. S. B., & National Research Council (U.S.). (2007). Staffing standards for aviation safety inspectors. Washington, D.C: National Academies Press.

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