From time to time when we occasionally hear about an airline accident, we often hear the term ,or cockpit resource management come up. CRM is a relatively new term that came out in the 1980's as a result of some high profile accidents in which it was faulted as pilot error being the main cause. Nasa did a study back in the 70's & 80's & determine that back then that pilot error would continue to be the main cause of many accidents. Safety technology & aircraft maintenance have improve to the point that they were not often involve in accidents. So the question became why was pilots being the main factor in accidents. Well, back in the 60's & 70's most airlines strictly hired military pilots. They especially like hiring pilots with fighter plane backgrounds. What NASA & the airlines discovered that there was a subculture back then that didn't allow much room for communications. In other words, there was a history of lack of teamwork & communications. Fighter pilots used to flying an aircraft alone had a difficult transition becoming a crew member of a multi-task commercial jet were communication & teamwork was critical. The culture of the military was that you followed orders & obey your commanders. So, what occurred was the airline captain with former military fighter pilot background had a position of being God in the cockpit. Subordinates were discouraged & ridicule for even speaking up about any concerns including safety.
There were some high profile accidents such as in 1980 of a United DC-8 trying to land in Portland, Oregon but had landing gear problems. The aircraft circled the airport for a while why trying to fix the problem. The first  officer & flight engineer saw that they were low on fuel & gave hints to the captain. The captain was more concern about the landing gear problem & didn't quite get the concerns of the other crew members low fuel concern. The first officer & flight engineer were not aggressive, or assertive enough to voice there concerns to the captain. The result was a crash that killed a lot of people. There been other similar accidents were crew members saw something wrong & didn't speak up in time. Its important to know that I am not trying to single out military fighter pilots. I have great respect for them & they are highly skilled aviators. However, the facts are the facts!
However, today those kind of accidents are in the past! Every airline & including the military introduce cockpit resource management as result of those problems in the past. Instructor's retrained that old culture from the military & airline captains to encourage & demand that they seek input from other crew members. The airlines taught first officers to be more assertive,& aggressive when expressing safety concerns. The first evidence of success of CRM was a United DC-10 that crashed in the 1989. The DC-10 was flown by Captain Al Haynes a former military fighter pilot who went through the CRM Program. He did everything right that day. They had lost all hydraulics & an engine in mid flight. That was something that engineers said could never happened. Its like driving your car down a highway at 120 mph with no steering wheel. The experts said no one should've survive that accident. But because of Captain Haynes leadership, & working well with his crew including seeking input from maintenance, another captain riding in the cabin & others, he was able to land the plane in a somewhat controllable crash. As result, one hundred people survived a crash that was against the odds. Captain Haynes survive &  became an instant celebrity. The CRM program was on the show case as a success. Captain Haynes became an aviation icon who I got the chance to meet when he came to my college. I have a high regard of respect for him. He even crack a joke for the sole purpose of relaxing his crew & keeping them & the air traffic controllers calm during the emergency. So currently CRM is in the mainstream of training at every aviation college, flight school, airlines, corporate flight depts, & the military. The system is so much more safer now because of CRM. Hopefully you will have less anxiety on your next flight realizing the system is more safe because of CRM.