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You are here: Home / Education / Leadership is Language-Lessons from the El Faro sinking

Leadership is Language-Lessons from the El Faro sinking

July 23, 2019 by Post

Jayme Welch of Turn the Ship Around did a most interesting and unusual presentation to 64 of our MOAS Members and Guests on the October 2017 tragic sinking of the container ship El Faro in Hurricane Joaquin with the loss of all 33 souls on board, including 400 containers and 300 cars in the Bahamas. The crew of 33 consisted of 5 Polish Nationals that didn’t speak English and were there as a training exercise.
Jayme’s team analyzed the last 25 hours of her voyage. It took almost a year to find the black box with 25 hours of audio recordings.
The route was simple. This ship had been making the same run to Puerto Rico for 2 decades. The Captain for the last 3 years. He was 54 years old, experienced mariner of 38 years. He spent 15 years on ships in Alaska, the worst and most dangerous of seas.
The route was usually easy, but on Oct 1st it looked like this was going to be trouble for the El Faro and her crew. The environmental factors of time and money put pressure on the Captain to obey the clock, to get to Puerto Rico on time, to do it in the most cost-effective way.
The Captain used minimizing language that resulted in the crew saying less about how they were handling sailing in hurricane conditions. The lack of curiosity gaining insights from others, stopped collaboration, the Captain using words to help the crew conform to subordinate roles instead of connecting with how they are doing.
In contrast Jayme and her team analyzed the January 15, 2009 audio recordings of US Airways Flight 1549 which, in the climb out after takeoff from New York City’s LaGuardia Airport struck a flock of Canada geese and consequently lost all engine power. Unable to reach any airport, pilots Chesley Sullenberger and Jeffrey Skiles glided the plane to a ditching in the Hudson River off Midtown. There were only 5 minutes of recording, in only 6 minutes of flying time.
The environmental factor of training for bad scenarios for the last 30 years is what the pilot said prepared him for a water landing. Pilots are raised with a different way of speaking to each other and ground control. The focus is on Interpersonal communication including using manors.
The result was the saving of all 155 passengers and crew aboard. The crew of US Airways Flight 1549 and ground control had written exercised procedures in how to deal with the situation…the Captain and crew of El Faro did not.

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