An Exploratory Study into Resilience Engineering and the Applicability to the Private Jet Environment

Resilience Engineering (often abbreviated to resilience) has gained increasing prominence in the training and operating environment. According to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), resilience is the ability of a crew member to recognize, absorb and adapt to disruptions (Malinge 2021). Private jet operations range from single pilot light jets owned and operated by one pilot to very sophisticated ultra-long-range jets. This study is focused primarily on the Fractional side of private jets. Fractional is a type of jet ownership that allows a corporation or very high net worth individual to buy a share of an aircraft. For the crews, the operation is high tempo with multiple sectors a day with many changes. Previous studies on resilience have focused on airline pilots and military pilots, in particular, how they handle abnormal situations. To date, there has been no known study on resilience conducted on private jet pilots operating in a high tempo environment. Therefore, this research was based around a mixed method online survey involving pilots who were new to the private jet environment compared to the behaviours of the experienced private jet pilots. Behaviours explored involve how work is done, technology use and the uptake of activity and mindfulness.