Dossier 32 Risk-taking Conclusions and Recommendations Académie de l'Air et de l'Espace Air and Space Academy Cover photo credits: © astoria - Fotolia.com Ariane 5 V192 liftoff © ESA/CNES/Arianespace © Ilja Mašík - Fotolia.com cockpit A380 © Airbus © Académie de l’air et de l’espace - Air and Space Academy 2010 - All Rights Reserved ISBN 2-913331-47-5 ISSN 1147-3657 The “Dossiers” Series No. 1 Les Équipements aérospatiaux civils*, 1989 No. 2 The Training of Young Pilots in Commercial Aviation, 1991 No. 3 Future High Speed Air Transportation System, 1991 No. 4 Principles of Ethics applicable to Professional Pilots, 1991 No. 5 Air Traffic Control, 1992 No. 6 Les Apports de la conquête spatiale à l’humanité*, 1992 No. 7 Safety in Light Aviation, 1994 No. 8 Principles of Ethics applicable to Private and Aerobatics Pilots, 1994 No. 9 The Future of Air Freight Transport, 1994 No. 10 Les Études et recherches dans le domaine aérospatial face à la compétition internationale*, 1995 No. 11 Feedback from Experience in Civil Transport Aviation, 1996 No. 12 Évolution des industries aérospatiales*, 1998 No. 13 Impact of Aircraft and Space Launchers on the Atmosphere and the Climate, 1998 No. 14 Medical Assistance to Aircraft Passengers, 1998 No. 15 Media and Safety in Air Transport, 2000 No. 16 Horizon 2020, Société humaine et activités aérospatiales*, 2000 No. 17 La Formation des ingénieurs au XXIème siècle*, 2002 No. 18 Air Traffic Management in Europe, 2002 No. 19 L’Avion de transport supersonique*, 2002 No. 20 Pilot Training, 2002 No. 21 Feedback from Experience in Civil Aviation, 2003 No. 22 Europe and Space Debris, 2003 No. 23 The Ballistic Threat: What should be the policy of France and Europe?, 2004 No. 24 Impact of Aviation on the Environment, 2004 No. 25 The UAV Revolution, 2005 No. 26 Low-fare airlines, 2006 No. 27 Space; a European Vision, 2006 No. 28 Airline Safety, 2007 No. 29 Air Transport and the Energy Challenge, 2007 No. 30 The Role of Europe in Space Exploration, 2008 No. 31 For a European Approach to Security in Space, 2008 * Only available in French – CONTENTS – Foreword .......................................................................................................... 7 Presentation...................................................................................................... 9 1- Opening addresses and guest speakers Risk is a human necessity .................................................................................. 11 Risk, alternatives and choice ............................................................................ 12 Where is risk situated? ...................................................................................... 13 Risk, the law and freedom.................................................................................. 14 Heart surgery: an example of risk .................................................................... 15 Mountaineering: an example of individual and collective risk ........................ 15 Extreme skiing: another example of risk-taking................................................ 16 Risk, the individual and society ........................................................................ 16 2- Cohesion and lack of cohesion in psychological and judicial systems Definition of risks .............................................................................................. 17 5 Taking a risk implies making a decision............................................................ 18 Precautionary principle: theory and perception .............................................. 20 Law and risk ...................................................................................................... 21 Examples ............................................................................................................ 24 3- Preparation of high-risk operations General reflections ............................................................................................ 29 The principle of reducing risk............................................................................ 30 Regulatory precautions ...................................................................................... 30 Collective risk-taking ........................................................................................ 30 Training for high-risk missions.......................................................................... 30 Attitude before the mission ................................................................................ 31 Aspects specific to flight testing ........................................................................ 32 Aspects specific to space flight .......................................................................... 32 4- Risk and responsibility Introduction........................................................................................................ 35 The case of surgery ............................................................................................ 35 The case of the civil nuclear industry................................................................ 38 5- Individual and collective risk Risk and daring.................................................................................................. 43 Risk in military missions.................................................................................... 46 Time and education............................................................................................ 50 6- Risk and organisation Risks and regulations ........................................................................................ 51 Human and organisational stakes of safety culture .......................................... 55 7- Industrial risk-taking The aeronautical experience ............................................................................ 61 Risks in space .................................................................................................... 65 Financial risks .................................................................................................. 68 Sustainable development.................................................................................... 70 8- Closing discussions Performance obligation or due care?................................................................ 71 Judicial power or authority? ............................................................................ 72 Competition, money and the media .................................................................. 72 6 Young people’s motivation ................................................................................ 73 Provisional recommendations............................................................ 75 Appendices Presentation of the Air and Space Academy...................................................... 79 List of the Academy’s publications .................................................................... 81 FOREWORD The Air and Space Academy is multidisciplinary and European. It has no direct responsibility in public affairs but cannot disregard them completely. In its statutes, the Academy’s aims are “to encourage high-level multidisciplinary thinking, support excellence in the areas of air and space, promote and enrich our scientific, technical, cultural and human heritage, diffuse knowledge and be a focal point for activities”(1). We are witnessing a trend within European societies towards over protectiveness and the resulting notion of “zero risk”. France in particular is alone among its fellow nations in having written the precautionary principle into its constitution, even if this notion is officially limited to the environment. There has also been a marked evolution in the French legal system towards the systematic search for a guilty party at the slightest suspicion that an event may have been caused, directly or indirectly, by an element of risk-taking. Such a change in mentality, and the fear it engenders, can put a curb on and 7 even bring to a halt certain aeronautics and space activities that are indispensable to the progress of our society. And yet, for the past century, the aeronautics community followed by the space sector have been busy developing a robust safety culture, although this seems to have escaped the attention of the media and therefore the public. This safety culture also exists in other recognised “high-risk” sectors such as the nuclear and many chemical industries. Caution is the byword in these industries and a precautionary approach is in fact omnipresent, one that aims above all to find the best preventive strategy and not to totally eliminate all risk. The obsession with finding a guilty party where none necessarily exists must therefore be abandoned. 1. Taken from the Academy’s statutes, article 2 Objective. RISK-TAKING In order to clarify these notions and avoid overblown positions, the Academy organised a national conference(2) on “Risk-taking: a human necessity that must be managed” from 4 to 6 February 2008. The subject is obviously multifaceted and the conference brought together operators accustomed to taking risks in different fields to discuss the various issues: major industrial development programmes – especially in aerospace –, surgical operations, risk taken in one’s own name or in the name of third parties, risk- taking and the legal system, etc. and on the notion of the precautionary principle. It aimed to place human beings back at the very heart of the question of risk-taking. For two years