Tim Atkin

So my name's Tim Atkin. I'm a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force. I live in the East Riding of Yorkshire and I currently work as an aviation occurrence safety investigator.

So I'd say it's a lot of learning.

So as an investigator, I could be called to any number of different kinds of occurrence.

So while I'm a trained air traffic controller, I needed a sort of an understanding about how different aspects and different parts of aviation work so I can understand how all those pieces fit together when something goes wrong.

But I also need to keep up to date with the latest research and investigative techniques for something called human factors, which is what our investigations predominantly focus on. And that's the study of how the human interacts with the world around it.

So this entirely depends on whether I have a current investigation and sort of what stage that investigation is at and it can vary enormously.

So when we get initial notification of an incident, so I'll read the initial report, I'll look who's involved, see where it took place. I'll start to look to book accommodation, hire a car to get me there.

I'll be speaking to people that were on that station and find out who my sort of assistant investigator is. And then I'll maybe start reading up on sort of some standard operating practices as well.

During the incident, I could be conducting interviews, gathering evidence, reading instruction manuals and standard operating practices. I'll be sort of writing up my investigation as well. So a big part of that is my report writing.

And in that I'll be speaking to subject matter experts, gathering their knowledge.

But most of all, it would be a lot of thinking. So a lot of thinking about what happened and then most importantly, why that happened.

So I ask a lot of questions and try to put myself in other people's positions at that time, to try and understand what made them make that decision that led to that undesirable outcome.

And then at the end of the investigation, so this stage is it's a lot of peer reviews, a lot of tweaking the report, but ultimately preparing it to share with senior officials.

I find this the most rewarding stage, as this is when you hope that the recommendations that you make, based on the things that you found in the investigation, are then implemented and make a real positive change.

So I work in a small team of highly capable and experienced individuals, but we're all geographically spread around the country so that we can respond to events anywhere because we respond to events in any military establishment.

But this means we predominantly rely on contact through remote means. This has been a bit of an adjustment for me as jobs like this are very rare in the military, so it's not something I experienced much of.

But I feel that being an air traffic controller I'm used to my communication having to be really clear, concise and purposeful which is super important with remote teams.

So for me it's definitely the variety.

So when the phone rings for a job you generally don't know what you're going to be sent to investigate and I'm a naturally curious person so the opportunity to learn about all the different aspects of defence aviation I think is a real privilege.

So I'd say the hardest part is carrying that responsibility of understanding why something truly happened. And it's digging beneath the surface so people aren't unfairly blamed and so the wider system can be improved.

So I know I've experienced it at school or work where I've made a decision that's led to an undesirable outcome and I've just been blamed for making a mistake and things have moved on with no change.

So what we really try to do is get to the why and the bottom, and try and understand how the system or why the system has placed that individual in that circumstance that's led them to make that decision that's then led to that undesirable outcome.

It is really tough but hopefully if we do our jobs well enough to get the recommendations and then hopefully that'll stop someone else getting in that situation and having another undesirable outcome.

So I joined the military back in 2017 but before that I had a number of different jobs and career paths I started to pursue.

So when I was at school, I wanted to be a maths and PE teacher. When I left school, I wanted to be a professional golfer and then a graduate sports rehabilitator and then into paramedics.

But my dream was always to fly helicopters and I wanted to fly helicopters specifically off the back of warships around the world.

So I originally joined the Royal Navy as a trainee pilot but unfortunately that didn't work out.

But because I loved the environment and the sense of purpose that the military brought I decided to retrain in the Navy as an air traffic controller which I did for seven years.

I was lucky enough to work at different places and then I transferred to the RAF to take up my current position last year.

I'm lucky that Navy aviation and the RAF are quite closely aligned so my skills were easily transferable.

So I actually went to university to study sport rehabilitation, so it's like sports physiotherapy.

But while that's little to do with what I do now, I believe it's really helped me with other aspects.

So like how to communicate with a wide variety of people, how to problem solve, finding the underlying cause of something and not just treating the obvious issue, curiosity and working as part of a team.

And at school as well, I was really lucky to be part of a lot of sports teams and a lot of a lot of teams around not just sport but in academics as well, with really supportive teachers. And that environment led me to want to learn, I think.

But I do believe that anything we do can be transferred across different roles and careers and those skills that we get is just about understanding what those skills are and how they transfer to your new role.

So I like to think that my job positively affects sort of the defence aviation community.

Not only making it safer, but also more efficient and the better the investigation I can produce, it will lead to safer aircraft, safer procedures and ultimately, sort of more confidence for everyone who operates in defence aviation.

So two moments spring to mind when I see that question.

First would be stood on the upper deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth, which is our aircraft carrier, the UK's aircraft carrier, in my best uniform as we sailed into New York Harbor to visit New York.

And then the second one would be walking out to bat to play cricket at Lord's Cricket Ground in the Inter-Services T20 competition representing my service. I also managed to hit a six as well.

So I'm really lucky that my job is remote based.

So I'm currently talking to you from my home office and I've got two small children, so two young children. It's amazing. I get to be at home and spend so much time with them. More than I would have in previous roles, something I'm incredibly grateful for.

Obviously there's a lot of time away, either conducting investigations or undertaking further training. So while I get to be at home in the write-up stage or between investigations, I try to make the most of it as much as I can.

So I think for me, it's don't put too much pressure on yourself when you're young to know what you are supposed to want to do for the rest of your life. Yeah, don't be afraid to pivot and change.

So honestly, I believe everything you do shapes you in a positive way. And sometimes the bravest thing you can do is realise when something isn't what you want to do and then change careers.

It's all about finding your purpose and enjoying what you do.