An Airline Checklist Use as a Sociomaterial Practice

Checklists form the basis of procedural standardization in the airline cockpit, with the help of which safety-critical measures become a routine part of flight crew task management. In this paper, we discuss the normal checklist use and its problems as a socio-material practice. We show how routine problems in checklist use are resolved, and point out how procedural and interactive backups function in action, thereby securing flight safety. We also examine the nature of problems in the checklist use that occur within the performance of individual checklists, within the order between checklists, and within the order between the checklist performance and other flight task activities. The problem types include premature, absent and excessive actions. The problems within checklists reveal troubles in the cognitive ergonomics of task design and logics of checklist use. The order problems between checklists appear as cognitive mis-performances, though cognitive overloading may have organizational grounds.