Examining Personal Error Reduction and Accountability training affects on reduced pilot error

In the late 1970s, Cockpit Resource Management (CRM) training began to address the issue of human factors in aircraft mishaps. The training focuses on the development of interpersonal communications among crewmembers in the cockpit, as well as communications with agencies and individuals outside the cockpit. By contrast, Personal Error Reduction and Accountability (PERA) training emphasizes intrapersonal development and individual responsibility for improving performance and safety in the flying environment. This research is the first attempt to measure the effectiveness of PERA trainings using data collected in cooperation with U.S. Marine aviation. A mixed approach of quantitative and qualitative analyses was used to evaluate the PERA training program. The 4th Marine Air Wing (MAW), which had completed three phases of PERA training (PERA-3), and pilots from the 2nd MAW, who had completed phase one (PERA-1) of the training, were participants in the research. The initial findings indicated that PERA training had an increasingly positive influence on attitude for those personnel who completed PERA-3, as compared to those who had completed only PERA- I training.