Validating the Commercial Aviation Safety Survey in the Chinese Context

Organizational safety culture has been a focus of research in sociotechnical systems, such as civil aviation, as organizational factors have been increasingly noted as contributory to accidents. The aim of the present study was to validate the Commercial Aviation Safety Survey (CASS), developed at the University of Illinois, in the context of Chinese flight operations. Two specific goals of this study included translating and developing a Chinese version of CASS based on the English version, and exploring the specific cultural and safety contexts of the Chinese version of the CASS. A particular focus of the study examined confidential reporting systems. A translation-back translation technique was used to convert the CASS into Chinese while maintaining the integrity in the meaning of the concepts. The survey was modified to adapt to the current Chinese civil aviation system regulation (CAAC), which included adding localized demographics and investigation of attitudes toward developing a confidential reporting system. The elementary confirmative factor analysis demonstrated that the CASS could be applied in the Chinese context. The general results from the two airlines surveyed demonstrated relatively low perceptions of organizational safety culture, with the exception of the instructor/trainer subscale. A comparison among the airlines’ current reporting system, the pilots’ attitude toward a possible confidential reporting system which would be controlled by the airlines they serve, or by a third party illustrated that pilots’ attitude toward their current reporting system were significantly lower than other proposed reporting system options. The effect of Chinese current macroand microenvironments on pilots’ attitude will be discussed. This data represents a preliminary study. Future steps involve further collection of data for comparison between different cultures and airlines. In conclusion The CASS can be successfully applied in the Chinese context, but attention should be paid to further developing measurement equivalence before the Chinese version is widely used.