In a study released by the Federal Aviation Administration, upwards of 80% of aviation incidents and accidents boil down to one thing: Human error. These captains wear a scarlet letter, and the general public begins its ritualistic finger pointing. The fact of the matter is that the same people pointing fingers are prone to the exact weaknesses that befell the pilots, which are better known in the aviation world as "hazardous attitudes". Hazardous attitudes spare nobody, and for this reason, it is integral to aviation safety that all pilots can recognize hazardous attitudes, remedy them, and most importantly, remind themselves that they are not above getting them.
The insidious nature of hazardous attitudes is what makes them as dangerous as they are, as one cannot remedy what they do not detect. Often times, the proper aeronautical decision-making skills of the pilot are compromised by defense mechanisms associated with the hazardous attitudes that prevent them from accepting the reality of the situation at hand. There are five hazardous attitudes recognized in the aviation world, those being macho, invulnerability, impulsivity, anti-authority, and resignation. Macho describes the need to show off and stick it to the others. It is flying with your ego, not your skills as a pilot. Invulnerability pertains to the "it won't happen to me" mentality. It is a false sense of invincibility. Impulsivity is acting on quick desires and rushing things without properly employing proper decision making. Anti-authority is the refusal to follow the regulations and guidelines in place and can possibly land you in some very hot water with the Federal Aviation Administration. Finally, we have resignation, which is a consuming feeling of helplessness and mental withdraw from the task at hand. These attitudes often go unnoticed by the pilot and are often times caught when it is too late.
For example, you are feeling pretty sick the morning of your flight. You are very congested, and your head hurts a ton. You are dead set on making it to your destination, as you have an interview that you need to be on time for. Despite the fact that you are not feeling fit to fly, you fly anyway, as the desire to make it to your destination is overwhelming, and you've flown with a cold before. You'll be fine, right? Right here, you have displayed both impulsivity and invulnerability. In your mind, you have flown with a head cold before, so how bad can it be? Plus, you NEED to get to your destination. The reality of the situation is that you are not in a fit condition to fly and are not properly weighing the risks at hand. So, you depart, and almost immediately remember that your buddy's house is a few miles ahead. You decide it would be cool to show off, so you text your friend to go outside, and you do a very low pass over his house at 300 feet. Here, you have displayed both antiauthority and macho. You busted regulations and got within 500 feet of an object on the ground in a sparsely populated area so you could show off a cool trick to your buddy on the ground. You figure it's something super cool you can brag about with him when you get on the ground, and who cares if you got within 500 feet? Who's going to stop you? You continue the flight, but upon reaching altitude, the pressure in your sinuses is so great from the illness, you feel your ear drums rupture and are overcome with immense pain. In your agony, you have neglected to properly fly the aircraft, and you are now in an unusual attitude. Looking down at the ground, your ears ringing and in excruciating pain, you figure, "what's the point? This is hopeless now." Finally, you have displayed resignation, and the safety of your flight is completely compromised.
It is easy to look at this scenario and go, who on earth would ever think to do those things? The answer is simple and something we are all prone to: Complacency. Even the most seasoned pilots with thousands of hours get too comfortable with their skills and succumb to these attitudes. Think it can't happen to you and that you've never displayed hazardous attitudes before? Congratulations, you have just demonstrated invulnerability. Every pilot is prone to the cognitive traps that come with being a human being, which is why hazardous attitudes should be learned from rather than approached with judgement. Recognizing you are prone to hazardous attitudes is the first step in being able to identify and remedy them. The more pilots get comfortable with identifying hazardous attitudes, the more human error can be eliminated at the source, allowing for a safer future of aviation.
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