Improving flight safety in combat training: A step forward

Denial by an organisation to improve its processes can cause nonconformities and defects. This paper, as a critical component of an ongoing research for military aviation organisations, proposes a quality improvement method for the reduction of variability that exists in safety processes and other organisational issues of a system that has an impact on human factors performance. The overall thesis requirement is a revised, more comprehensive military pilot's error framework. The intent is to start to bridge and compare existent Flight Safety programmes among NATO/EU Air Forces and show how a tailored Safety Management System can be realised. This paper's outcome documents meaningful recommendations for military operators to further improve flight safety in combat training, by equipping them with a standard template for measuring their pilots' safety performance and their progress towards performance excellence. However, the methodology is based on a hypothetical but also “reasonable” example.