AMC Flight Safety Line Operation Safety Audit (LOSA) Program Update

By JEANIE HOOD, HQ AMC FLIGHT SAFETY

As most of the flying community is aware, the Line Operation Safety Audit (LOSA) is a proactive safety observation program used to collect safety-related data during normal operations by identifying the threats personnel face, the standard errors made, and practices employed by them to trap, mitigate, and manage those threats and errors. Air Mobility Command (AMC) has been conducting LOSAs since 2010 and has completed more than 2,500 observations, which have produced hundreds of actionable recommendations. These recommendations help mitigate identified risks, prevent potential mishaps, and drive procedural and technical data rewrites or changes and system upgrades.

Spring 2021 will be a busy season for the AMC LOSA program at Scott Air Force Base (AFB), IL. The Flight and Occupational Safety divisions will be conducting the first LOSA for the aircraft maintenance community, observing C-17 crew chief/ flight-line operations. The LOSA observations will be conducted at five C-17 bases nationwide: Travis AFB, CA; Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, NJ; Joint Base Charleston, SC; Joint Base Lewis-McChord, WA; and Dover AFB, DE. For each new LOSA, a Threat and Error Matrix (TEM) must be developed. This TEM contains the criteria the observers will use when conducting the audit. Creating the TEM required expert guidance from C-17 Crew Chief professionals. In Oct. 2020, a dozen Crew Chiefs from various C-17 bases gathered at Scott AFB and spent three days developing and validating the TEM.

Please remember, LOSA is just a snapshot in time—a cholesterol test of the observed community. Identifying threats to aircrews and ground personnel and mitigating those risks make normal operations safer. If you happen to be the individual or the crew who has an observer on the flight line or in the cockpit—relax! It is not an inspection or an individual evaluation. The observer is there only to observe, so perform your duties like you would any other day. Stay safe out there!