Notes from IEEE IPCC99 Conference
New Orleans, Louisiana, September 7-10, 1999

Crisis Communication

Communication Failures Lead to Airline Disasters

Judith B. Strother
Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL and Virtual Languages

The author is chair of the graduate and undergraduate programs in communication and associate professor of applied linguistics at Florida Institute of Technology. She is also curriculum specialist for Virtual Languages, Inc. Her extensive academic credentials include a Ph.D. in technology and linguistics from Tenchnische Universiteit Eindhoven in the Netherlands, as well as an MBA, an MA in applied linguistics, and a BS in management.

Session Description: The presenter illustrates how communication problems have contributed, directly or indirectly, to some of the most disastrous aviation accidents in history. An analysis of past accidents reveals that common factors associated with poor communication include confusing phraseology, similar call signs, ambiguity, inference problems, and a host of other linguistic issues. Unclear English, heavy foreign accents, and poor enunciation are all contributors.

Handout: The presenter provided two flyers from Virtual Languages offering distance learning opportunities in Aviation English. For copies, contact Dan Voss.

• Pilot error is involved in 70% of airline crashes, and communication is an important part of that.
• Distractions, noise, stress, and fatigue combine to create the opportunity for disaster.
• Causes of miscommunication include the absence of an international standard, the use of nonstandard phraseology, heavy accents, poor enunciation, ambiguity, and unclear references.
• Tenerife: "We are now at takeoff." -- The Dutch pilot's words were misunderstood by the air traffic controller (ATC). The pilot meant "wheels up," whereas the ATC understood the plane to just be taxiing up to the runway.
• Avianca: "We are running out of fuel." --The pilot's words were understood by the ATC to mean fuel was running low, whereas the plane was actually completely out of fuel. The correct term was "fuel emergency."
• Similarity of call signs and sounds, confusion with numbers, and use of translators can also lead to disaster. (a = e = i sounds in different languages)
• Presenter interviewed 47 pilots at Paris Air Show; almost half of them could provide examples of translators being used in the cockpit. A colleague in Hong Kong conducted a similar survey, with similar results.
• Cultural issues: In the recent Taiwan-China crash, an Italian pilot from Irish training school was flying with young Chinese copilot, who might have deferred to the age and rank of the senior pilot, even though he was linguistically better suited to communicate with the ATCs in China and Taiwan.
• Pilots ranked their own English ability; most said "average," but the statistics show that many revert to their native tongue when flying into airports where that is the predominant language. The problem? In this case, it's not between the ATC and the pilot (who share the same native language), but with many of the other pilots in the area who do not speak that language, and are thus cut out of the information loop altogether... whence the urgent need for an international standard for Aviation English and a much higher level of English language training for pilots.

Uses of the Internet in Emergency Response

Donald E. Newsom, Ph.D, P.E. (presenter)
from paper co-authored with Caroline L. Herzenberg and Craig E. Swietlik
Argonne National Laboratory

Dr. Newsom is program manager for emergency preparedness training with the Emergency Systems Group at Argonne National Laboratory. He has developed and conducted more than 100 workshops and courses on various aspects of emergency preparedness.

Session Description: The Internet, with its proliferation of real-time information, can be of considerable value in emergency response situations. The presenter outlined current and future areas wherein Internet communication technology can be used in emergency support situations. He also covered potential drawbacks and risks attendant upon such use.

• Emergency management weather information is available in real time over the Web to emergency managers.
• Data buoys are located throughout the Gulf of Mexico to provide real-time windspeed and wave height information on hurricanes.
• During severe droughts or floods, emergency managers can monitor stream heights in real time.
• Other examples include seismic danger zones and fire danger classifications.
• Pre- and post-event analytical tools exist to assess vulnerability or damage, respectively.
• The Census Bureau has geographic information systems (GIS) map capability using USGS database.
• Decision support tools: database applications, GISs, modeling.
• Hazardous materials: classification of materials, maps to show probable distribution paths of toxic materials after accidents (airborne or waterborne), which governs the type of protective measures needed (evacuation, etc).
• Sea, lake, and overland surges from hurricanes (SLOSH) model predicts how far the storm surges from hurricanes of varying degrees of intensity will penetrate tidal basins, etc.
• Remote sensing data can predict areas of probable damage from hurricanes, so recovery teams can pinpoint their response.
• Incident management tools: call-down systems, computer-aided dispatch, mobile data.
• Communication tools: satellite, wireless communication.
• Chat rooms were used for emergency management "war games" for training. Five chat rooms were used: an incident command post, an emergency operations center, a staging area, a triage area, and a media briefing area. Results were very positive; it proved to be a low-cost, flexible, hands-on training. Problems included software training, network connection, and message volume.
• Information dissemination: alerting, warning, public information. Web-based alerts exist for all forms of natural disasters.
• CERT advisories for computer threats... viruses, etc.
• Disaster News Network: "Storms Trash Communities." Great speed, variable accuracy! In the case of false alarms on epidemics, this could trigger panic.
• Supply management for relief following disasters.
• "Legal Limits on Access to and Disclosure of Disaster Information": e.g., lists of fatalities published prematurely, with inaccuracies.
• Pros: speed, visualization, types of information.
• Cons: Reliability, security, accuracy

Lights, Sirens, and Computers: How Pen-Based Computing is Changing the Way Emergency Care is Conducted and Communicated

Roger H. Munger
James Madison University, Institute of Technical and Scientific Communication

The presenter teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in workplace writing, information design, and visual communication. A former emergency medical technician, he received his Ph.D. in communication and rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Session Description: Mobile electronic data collection devices have changed the way emergency medical service (EMS) professionals care for patients and document their actions. Pen-based computing offers the potential for professionals in this and other health care specialties to deliver a higher level of patient care while also reducing the cost of data collection, archiving, and retrieval.

• Computer-based information arms paramedics with detailed crash information while they are enroute to the accident scene.
• Paramedics use pen-based laptop computers to send vital signs to the hospital while ambulance is enroute to the trauma center.
• Information is transmitted to hospital continuously during transit.
• Information is also downloaded to the billing department, various government agencies for archiving, etc.
• Pre-hospital emergency care is relatively recent: it dates only to the 1960s. Before that, it was basically a case of hauling the injured to the hospital.
• Emergency Medical Services system is a "chain of human and physical resources chained together to provide total patient care."
• Paper trail had many problems: illegible handwriting, illegible copies, cost of processing, missing data, and improper insurance coding, archiving problems, billing delays, liability exposure, inability to track patient outcomes, lack of uniform data collection.
• In the early 1990s, pen-based computing came of age. Initial implementation encountered some problems such as hardware durability, start-up costs, poor handwriting recognition, and initial employee resistance.
• Benefits soon became apparent: streamlined patient care, increased level of service, increased accuracy, increased access to past records, decreased legal liability, and better data collection for research.
• "Frequent flyers": Paramedics' term for patients who regularly get transported to the hospital via ambulance.
• The pen-based computer can be used right at the patient's side. It facilitates time-stamping (important in cardiac cases). It allows providers to access important reference material, such as dosage levels.
• Pen-based computing provides immediate feedback for obvious errors (e.g., blood pressure of 900 over 60). Raw data is automatically transferred into a database for future use. It reduces time consumed by filling out forms. It facilitates in-transit interaction between paramedics in ambulances and emergency room medical personnel at the destination hospital.
• Future of EMS reporting: Digital images of scene will be transferred directly to computer; diagnostic equipment will connect directly with computers. Patient data will be downloaded to small cards; software can interpret it on the spot. Computers will fit in the pockets of providers.
• Implications for EMS: Pen-based computing will enable EMS to gather data that will help it grow as an independent profession, rather than a paramedical arm of doctors.