The NTSB recently released a Safety Briefing applicable to all pilots. It details several recent mid-air collisions that maybe could have be avoided if the pilots had seen the other aircraft coming. All were in good day VFR conditions. There’s no indication that these pilots were looking at iPads at the time, but I think we all know how captivating …
Category: Link to Article
New Brain Science on Expert Intuition
New brain science shows where expert intuition quickly silently processes information. It’s where master pilots ‘simply’ look outside and see the wind, feel the wing, and just land. It appears that the site of fast, automatic, unconscious cognitive operations—from where a solution materializes all of a sudden—lies in the basal ganglia, linked to but apart from the cortex. These studies …
We are the Grease in the Cogs
Powerful four minute video by professor and pilot Sidney Dekker introduces what we find when we stop looking at accidents, and instead study highly reliable organizations. It’s resilience: the ability to accommodate change and absorb disturbances without catastrophic failure. And it’s not about reducing negatives, but rather promoting positives. The four behaviors that resilient teams practice are: Don’t take past success …
We are Responsible …
“We are responsible for the incident and its consequences.” ~ Amtrak CEO Joseph Boardman on the fatal Philadelphia derailment. Whatever the engineer’s actions in speeding into the curve, it’s refreshingto see a CEO actually take responsibility for a crash. System Safety and Just Culture moving beyond the safety dept? (Guardian newspaper story 2 June 2015.)
NTSB on Lessons Learned from UPS 1354
“I ask that we pilots recommit to standardization. In 2015, one of the NTSB’s Most Wanted List priorities is to Strengthen Procedural Compliance. This means: follow your SOPs. If you think one of your procedures is inappropriate or unwise, ask your company to consider changing it, but until they do, follow it and potentially avoid a catastrophic incident.” ~ Roger …
The Mindfulness Teacher
Meet the man who taught Michael Jordan & Kobe Bryant meditation. If it has helped top athletes achieve high performance under demanding conditions, why would you not try it? It’s free! Article in The Boston Globe, This mindfulness teacher gets results (just ask Kobe): Newton’s George Mumford teaches basketball greats — and everyday people — the power of flow. “The crowd gets …
Cannot Predict Human Factors?
“There is nothing we can do, because there is nothing that we failed in … This has to do with human factors, and you cannot predict that.” ~ Marlene Manave, the former boss of LAM Mozambique, regards her carrier’s response to the pilot murder-suicide crash of flight 470. So much for studying psychology then. Quoted in The Economist.
Sleep and Air Crew Fatigue Management.
“As long as human beings are pilots . . . fatigue will be a critical safety issue that demands our attention.” Sleep and Air Crew Fatigue Management, excellent serious article in Business & commercial Aviation magazine. Airmanship demands alertness. Quotes Sully Sullenberger, the NTSB’s Mark Rosekind, and many more.
Somber Reading About F/A-18C Accident
“An overreliance on technology can be a disadvantage.” Official report of a USN F/A-18C fatal accident that also talked about ‘situational awareness’. Good weather. Good plane. Good pilot. Always risky aircraft carrier operations. All this and more in a somber New York Times article
Quick Thinking Airmanship Saves the Day
Quick thinking airmanship saves the day. What would you do if the windshield become completely unusable, covered in sea salt? The Irish Independent has the amazing full story: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/irish-pilots-save-plane-and-46-passengers-during-landing-aaiu-31186623.html