Distraction. Maybe We Should Learn To Work With Them?

The NTSB has a lot that they would like to address in the name of safety and it is not all aviation related.  However there are two aspects of their 2013 "most wanted" list that are very applicable to aviation.  One of them is the identification and communication of hazardous weather in general aviation.  The other is distractions in all form of transportation--including aviation.  In the issue of the distraction it sites an accident in which a medical helicopter crashed in Missouri on Aug 26th, 2011.  The crash occurred because the helicopter ran out of fuel and "The pilot, James Freudenbert, 34, of Rapid City, S.D.,exchanged 20 text messages, over a span of less than two hours preceding thehelicopter crash, documents made public by NTSB show."

While I do feel that distractions in the cockpit is an issue that needs to be addressed, I think this again is victim of slight overhype. It seems we like to pick and choose what distractions are acceptable and with at ones are not. Aviation is a field littered with distraction. While flying the plane you need to constantly be checking your location, possibly communicating with others, looking for other traffic--all things that could distract you from holding your altitude and heading. We do, however, learn to adapt those distractions and incorporate them. I feel the accident sited is just a poor example.  The text messages were sent prior to the actual flight. Presumably during the pre-flight checklist and it is being argued that because of the text messaging is why the pilot did not check the fuel. The NTSB says "personal electronic devices", or "PEDs" was the cause of this distraction.  For this case in particular, that may have been the case. But if the pilot had needed to use the restroom quickly during his pre-flight and when he returned he had mentally skipped over that step in the checklist? Would we ban using restroom facilities prior to a flight? What if he was going through the pre-flight checklist the pilot's supervisor had called out to him to ask him a question? Would we then have to make an effort to ban speaking when performing a pre-flight checklist?

Distractions of any kind can be bad and I feel that PEDs are being used as the primary scape goat. My mother was I a debilitating car accident that made it so she was never able to walk again. The accident was cause because she flicked the ash off her cigarette (back when actual cigarette trays were in the car) and looked down the speedometer. Should smoking while driving and checking your speed be outlawed? Instead of taking an effort to ban all kind of distraction we should be training people to adapt to them and work around them--just like we do in all other aspects of aviation distraction.  No one ever says that unfolding a sectional chart could be a distraction, instead we say to in operate that distractions into your flying.  Haven't we lerned yet that elimination doesn’t seem to increase safety, but adaptation does?

From a career standpoint I'm not entirely sure that a new job positions could be created in eliminating distractions in and of themselves. I suppose a software could be developed to lock out personal texting when activated by the pilot during pre flight so that he would not miss anything during the preflight. But that would still require the pilot to activate the program.  You could have someone inspect the pilot as he inspected the plane to be sure he wasn't distracted, but again, existing personal could always already do that and would that inspector also tell at the pilot's supervisor if he called out to him?

There is room, however, for education.  I think PEDs have the potential to do more good than harm.  Perhaps instead of using paper checklists have an electronic checklist as an app that a pilot can use on their PED.  When activated it could potentially lock out personal text messages, but, more importantly the pilot would have to tap the item checked after it was checked--maybe changing the color of a checklist from red to blue? This way if a distraction--any distraction--occurred and the pilot was momentarily taken away from a checklist, when he would look back at the app he could say "oh, the fuel is still red.  I haven't checked that yet.  I should check that."  Job opportunities could be put toward creating such a software and then possible seminars to ensure the proper teaching of caption and application to the app. Distractions are going to occur all the time.  Rather than eliminate them, I feel we should work around them.

Landing at the wrong airport is obviously not something to be taken lightly.  Not because of the mistake itself--oftentimes these mistakes have no threat to the cargo or passengers on board and result in a safe landing.  The part that makes it a concern is the implications that pilots may not be aware of what's going on. As pilots, we are taught to have a very good situational awareness.  Landing at an airport demonstrates a complete lack of situational awareness—and that’s the main concern. The two incidents already discussed--both the Dreamlifter and 747--are the most pro dominant, but this is not the first time this has happened.  On Sept 7th, 2011, Continental Connections flight 3222 was inbound for a destination of Lake Charles, LA. It landed at the wrong airport that was eight miles away.  

Some of the hazards of this kind of mistake are very obvious. Others, not so obvious.  In this incident--and those mentioned earlier--no harm was done to passengers or the cargo. If everything goes well, when landing at the wrong airport there is no damage done.  There are the obvious problematic implications; that the runway may not longer be enough for takeoff, or possible fuel problems that may occur if a plane needed to make another takeoff or landing. The less obvious implications, I think, are more regulatory ones.  What if that additional landing would put the pilots over their rest requirements? Could the pilot landing at the wrong airport be a sign that the pilot is already fatigued and shouldn't be flying anyway?  It also adds another landing and takeoff to keep in mind in oncoming up to the next inspection.

Of course, there are reasons for mistakes.  There are reasons for every mistake in every field. And every mistake in every field can always be attributed to an error somewhere. And, in a perfect world, those mistakes can always be avoided. But this isn't a perfect world. We, as humans, in any field are going to make mistakes. I don't know...maybe I just don't think like a lawyer like most of this country does. However, I do believe incidents like this aren't as big of a deal as their made out to me.  Don't misunderstand me, landing at the wrong airport IS a mistake and corrective actions should be taken, however I do feel as thought he media has taken these more recent events and blown them a tad out of proportion. 

A google search of "airplane lands at the wrong airport" yields dozens of the same result.  It takes a little bit of playing with the words to find other incidents--and there are other incidents--of Commercial aviation making a meatier mistakes. While these incidents are not entirely isolated, they are very overhyped in the media, it would seem.  And a little bit of circumstance should be taken into consideration when evaluating these incidents.  Even in the article Al Yuman explains that with regionals they may be working the same amount of hours but have more takeoffs and landings.  I would be interested in a survey conducted on percentages comparing regional and major mistakes. If you are doing something more often, there is more room for error than if a task is only being performed once in a shift.

But even though these incidents aren't entirely isolated, that also does not mean there should be no ramification when the mistake is made.  In the case on Sept 7th, 2011, the pilots were both suspended, but with pay. I do feel that is a fair disciplinary action,  Largely because it accepts that safety was not compromised, but that some things need to be evaluated to ensure this does not happen again. To me, this shows a company willing to he improve their employees and their customer service--too learn from their mistakes--rather than discard them. 

Aviation is a field that is constantly changing and should itself be constantly improving. Moving forward is to get away from the mentality of "cut off the hand of a thief" and instead teach the thieves to not steal. There will always be mistakes.  It is part of what makes us human. As long as we retain that humanity--the essence as a species--we need to accept that these mistakes will happen, and perhaps review the consequence on an individual basis and come with ways to correct it in the future.  Instead of overdramatizing the mistakes, and making people feel as if certain aspects of aviation are not, accept that mistakes will happen and move forward!

 Allons-y!

Allons-y!

As for me?  I try to define myself with a combination of them all, but what defines me most is my interests. I have more hobbies than I can keep up with. I dabble a little bit on guitar, I love to read and write. In fact, as soon as I have a period of time that I am not taking 16-20 credit in a semester I hope to write my fifth novel. I am a dork at heart. I can have philosophical conversations about Star Wars, see historical parallels in the Justice League, and can relate just about anything to Doctor Who (of which I am a big fan of to those who may not have gotten the reference in my username.)

Those are only part of who I am, though. An important part, the personal part. But there is the professional part as well. I have been a paramedic for a few years so have a divine interest in medicine. I also have an extreme interest in aviation. But we all knew that, right? That's why we're here. That's why we take out loans, admire airports, and spend late night night studying. It's why we make the sacrifices we make. And I fall into that category as well. There is nothing like the feeling of being in the sky--escaping into it, really--and enjoying that happy balance of serenity and excitement.

As our education begins to come toward an end, though is where we really start to fly. This is where we really go throttle full and watch for our rotation speed. But who I am is more than just a pilot. I'm a paramedic. I'm a Whovian. I'm an author. So as I pitch up and begin this new career I want to remember those things

We all are about to embark on an adventurous journey. We are all about to see where our wings take us. I, for one, hope to embrace it. And enjoy not only the flying, but everything that comes with me. All of the things that define me. So let's all enjoy it. And take off with every bit of our selves. Here's to escaping into the sky: Allons-y!