“Take It Seriously!”

Aircrew Life Support plays a vital role in ensuring the day-to-day survival of aircrew and passengers. Their responsibilities range from training personnel on the use of something as simple as camouflage application to maintaining extremely valuable and highly complex night vision goggles. The work they do on a daily basis is often not recognized by the aircrew until they find themselves in the unfortunate position of having to rely on the training and equipment our talented Life Support Airmen provide. To ensure their efforts are not in vain, aircrew need to do their part. Many is the time I’ve seen aircrew step to the aircraft without a proper pre-flight of their life support equipment, and too often, this has resulted in unfortunate ”Darwinian” comments contained in safety mishap investigation reports. “Mishap crewman failed to properly adjust helmet straps, which enabled separation on impact, resulting in fatal injuries.” “Mishap pilot was unable to make contact with SAR assets due to lack of operating knowledge of the PRC-112.” When you sit through your multi-hour long Annual Life Support Training Course, take it seriously. Participate and ensure you come away with a working knowledge of how to use all of your life support equipment. Before you step to the aircraft, make the time to inspect your gear. The minimum penalty might be an embarrassing discussion with your Operations Officer on explaining a late takeoff because your helmet’s communications cord failed. The maximum? A lot worse. To all the Life Support Airmen out there, thanks for the hard work!

— The Safety Sage