Well I happen to know a thing or two about those statistics and about the particular number of events at PSA. It’s been happening for years. MHI changed their inspection criteria which now requires costly inspections be complied with. It’s costing the company a lot of money so naturally they are now (like magic) hyper-focused on it.

As for the section 18’s, you have to understand the relationship of all the various departments at an airline. Flight Ops being the department with the most “power” or sway, if you will. So upper management sees a problem. “Fix the NWS issue. It’s costing us money. Flight Ops, get on it.” So flight Ops looks at the problem, and the means at their disposal to “fix” said problem. Which, in this case really isn’t much. They tried bulletins and notices to the pilot group and that didn’t work (not surprisingly) and so then they decided they’ll try another tool at their disposal, disciplinary hearings. The real fix involves neither bulletins or Section 18 hearings. But the real fix takes time and it’s difficult to show upper management you’re doing something about a problem if all you’re telling them is, “we are making changes that require regulatory approval. ETA 6 months. Stby to stby.” That doesn’t work well. Hence the hearings and hyper-focus on non compliance etc.

Just take your time, make sure you’re doing everything by the book. No need to rush anything for any reason, be methodical and deliberate. If you are in a “non-normal” situation like coming into a tow-in gate, at a power-out gate, or have no APU, just be extra careful. If you have a checklist that is interrupted, start it over from the beginning. Brief your FOs to double-check the parking brake and NWS switch at the before start and at shutdown. Make sure your EFB is up to date. Any normal pilot flying the line shouldn’t be worried about any of these things because frankly, you’re doing your normal job of showing up to work prepared and ready to work. Remember, we aren’t paid to get passengers and planes from A to B. We’re paid to mitigate risk between A and B. So mitigate.