A Preventive Communication Protocol for Hint-and-Hope Situations in Flight Operations

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Indirect or ambiguous communication in flight operations can create situations in which one crew member expresses a suggestion, concern, doubt, question, or remark without making the reason or significance of that communication immediately explicit to the other crew member. When the receiving crew member does not understand the reason or significance intended by the initiator, the two crew members may develop different understandings of the situation, resulting in a loss of shared situational awareness. There is a further potential consequence. If the receiving crew member does not understand what prompted the communication, and no clear reason becomes apparent, the communication may be disregarded as having no immediate significance, particularly in high workload situations. The initiating crew member may receive a response without realising that the reason or significance of the communication was not understood, and may therefore assume that it has been understood. The communication failure can thus remain undetected by both crew members. The following communication protocol is proposed to address this mechanism: When making a suggestion, expressing a concern or doubt, asking a question, or making an operationally significant remark, state the reason or basis for it immediately, in the same sentence or in a consecutive sentence, without interruption. The purpose of the protocol is not to replace existing CRM principles concerning assertion, challenge, clarification, or escalation. Rather, it is intended to prevent a substantial proportion of situations from becoming ambiguous in the first place, by ensuring that the information giving meaning and significance to a communication is conveyed together with the communication itself.