Making Sense of Culture in the Cockpit: The Crash of Japan Airlines Flight 1045

Abstract

A novel methodology is used to analyze flight crew communication during the crash of Japan Airlines Flight 1045 in Anchorage, Alaska. Conversation analysis (CA) techniques are used to identify significant recurring phenomena and critical interactions that provide insight into the process of communication breakdown in the cockpit. Several communication barriers between the American captain and Japanese first officer (FO) and flight engineer (FE) contributed to the accident. One factor was the Japanese FO talking around flight safety concerns without stating them directly, which is explained in terms of high- and low-context interactions. Intra-cockpit communication may also have been influenced by topic avoidance and a desire to minimize face loss. The lessons from this accident are relevant to current airline operations as “culture accidents” still periodically occur.

Keywords: Airline Accident, Communication Breakdown, Conversation Analysis, Culture, Cockpit Voice Recorder, Safety

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005192