GOSA: the Ground Operations Safety Audit

GOSA was one of the first programmes to take LOSA-style observation to the ramp. Trained ramp observers watched normal turnarounds and recorded what they saw. Normal Operations Monitoring (NOM) is that approach developed further, and tested on more than 1,300 observed turnarounds.

Where GOSA came from

A team of psychologists and human factors specialists at a major Australian airline had seen how LOSA gave the flight deck a picture of normal work. They took the same approach to the airline's ramp. Observers who knew the work watched everyday turnarounds, without jeopardy, and recorded the threats teams met, the errors and variations that followed, and how the teams managed them.

What GOSA recorded

• Threats on the turnaround, such as equipment, load information and operational pressure
• Errors, and the undesired states they could lead to
• How the team managed each one
• Details of the turnaround: the stand, aircraft type and number of staff

From GOSA to NOM

GOSA was developed further at UNSW Aviation, in partnership with several airlines, as part of a PhD. The result is Normal Operations Monitoring. It keeps what made GOSA work, and changes these things:

• Variations, not blame. Where work as done differs from work as imagined, it is recorded without assuming a fault.
• What goes right. Enablers and good practice are coded as well as threats and errors.
• Statistics. Odds ratios show which conditions go with which outcomes, such as irregular loads or damage.
• A checking group. Every observation is confirmed before it counts.
• A self-service tool. An organisation's own people can run it, with an observer course, a coding guide and a phone app.

The reference data, from over 1,300 observed turnarounds across several airlines, comes from the original programme. You can explore the reference data to see what it shows.