Charlie Victor Romeo

Charlie Victor Romeo
Date premiered	Fall 1999
Original language	English
Subject	Crew Resource Management
Genre	Theatrical Documentary
Setting	Airplane cockpits
Official site

Charlie Victor Romeo is a 1999 play, and later a 2013 movie based on the play, whose script consists of almost-verbatim transcripts from six real aviation accidents and incidents. "Charlie Victor Romeo," or CVR, derived from the NATO phonetic alphabet, is aviation lingo for cockpit voice recorder. The play is a case study in crew resource management; a PBS special described several parallels between the behavior seen in these disasters and in emergency room situations.

The play opens with a flight attendant demonstrating the safety equipment and reminding the audience to fasten their seat belts and turn off cell phones. Before each scene, a display screen shows the name of the flight and reason for the disaster (e.g. "Icing" or "Multiple bird strikes"). Sound effects such as cockpit alarms, aircraft interior ambiances and mechanical sounds are included. At the end of each flight, the screen shows the number of casualties. A few of the transcripts were edited for time. At the end of the play, the cast and creators answer questions from the audience.

The play was created by Bob Berger, Patrick Daniels and Irving Gregory of Collective:Unconscious in 1999. It was taped and used by the Pentagon for pilot training. US Air Force Major General Walter E. Buchanan III awarded the group a letter of gratitude. After February 2002 performances in Perth, Australia, the play performed in dozens of venues across the United States, including Washington, DC's Studio Theatre. In 2004, Time put Charlie Victor Romeo on their Best Plays of the Year list. The play has been performed in Japanese by the Rinkogun Theater Company under the direction of Yoji Sakate. In 2012, Charlie Victor Romeo was made into a motion picture, which premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film festival.

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