Pilot Sim
Experienced commercial pilots observe live clinical simulations and deliver structured, non-judgemental feedback, drawing on the human factors parallels between the flight deck and the clinical team.
About WingFactors
Aviation has spent more than a century making flying extraordinarily safe. We bring that discipline to the NHS.
WingFactors is an educational body of airline professionals working alongside the NHS. Through human factors training, we help clinical teams strengthen the communication, teamwork and decision-making that keep patients safe under pressure.
Our story
Born in a crisis, built to last
When the COVID-19 pandemic grounded the world’s aircraft, it grounded their crews too. Hundreds of experienced pilots and cabin crew found themselves furloughed, with hard-won safety expertise and nowhere to use it.
At the same time, NHS teams were facing the most demanding period in their history. A group of those furloughed airline professionals saw a way to help. They knew that aviation and healthcare share the same high-stakes truth: when skilled people work under pressure, it is the human factors, not the technical knowledge, that decide the outcome.
So they founded WingFactors and built two programmes hand in hand with clinicians. What started as a response to a crisis has become a lasting partnership, bringing the safety culture of the flight deck to wards, theatres and emergency departments across the country.
What we believe
Human factors are the difference between a good team and a safe one
Human factors is the study of how people perform in real conditions: how we communicate, share workload, stay aware and make decisions when it matters most. Aviation learned to take it seriously the hard way. We help healthcare do the same, without the same cost.
Interprofessional by design
Pilots, cabin crew and clinicians in the same room. Fresh eyes on safety bring perspectives that single-discipline training cannot.
Psychologically safe
Feedback is non-judgemental and anonymised. People speak up, own mistakes and learn, because the environment makes it safe to do so.
Practical, not theoretical
Every session is participant-centred and grounded in real clinical scenarios. Teams leave with habits they can use on the next shift.
Patient Engagement
Professionally trained cabin crew bring world-class service, de-escalation and communication skills to frontline staff, building a culture of compassion that puts patients at ease.
Meet the team
The people behind the programmes
Captains, crew and clinicians who have made it their mission to bring aviation safety culture into healthcare.
Alex Jolly
Short Haul Captain | CRMT
Alex is a commercial airline captain and Crew Resource Management trainer who brings the discipline of flight deck human factors into clinical teams to improve patient safety.
Dave Fielding
Long Haul Captain | CRMT
Dave is a long haul airline captain and Crew Resource Management trainer who helps healthcare teams adopt the non-technical skills that underpin aviation safety.
Wayne McCormack
Patient Engagement Lead | CRMT
Wayne leads WingFactors patient engagement work and is a Crew Resource Management trainer, applying aviation communication techniques to improve the patient experience.
Dr Heidi Edmundson
Clinical Wellbeing Advisor
Heidi is an emergency medicine consultant and the clinical wellbeing advisor to WingFactors, supporting the wellbeing and psychological safety of the clinical teams we work with.
Proven on the front line
Our work is measured in the teams we train and the trusts who invite us back.
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- NHS Trusts
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- Pilot Sims Completed
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- Different Specialties
Trusted by NHS teams across the country
The highly professional, structured approach by the team of pilots at WF’s who are unquestionably experts in HF’s has provided a very new and enlightening approach to running these simulations. The targeted, non-judgemental, anonymised written feedback and take home messages allow the participants to learn and remember some very important non-technical skills.
Dr Andrew Levison
Anaesthetics Consultant
Bring aviation safety thinking to your team
Tell us about your service and what you would like to achieve. We will come back to you personally to talk it through.
No obligation. We reply to every enquiry personally.