The first of these three things I have mentioned in
this blog before. I spend a lot of time taking apart fatal aviation accidents,
looking for the influences and factors which came together in the unique combination
that allowed each ‘accident’ to happen. In recent years one of the most common
precursors to a crash is procedural non-compliance – deviation from standard
operating procedures by one or more of those involved. The reasons that pilots
and other professionals deviate in this way are many and often related to
complex human behavioural conditions; it is worth looking at Abraham Maslow’s
hierarchy of human needs for insight into some of them. Whatever the underlying
reasons, prior to a crash the captain will frequently decide to do something
contrary to their training and procedures, that will eventually lead to their own
demise. Sadly their co-pilots often look on, aware that all is not well but
saying nothing.
The second thing is ‘risk denial’; maybe I have
raised it in earlier posts. This is a condition that arises when we are
regularly exposed to a particular, perhaps severe, hazard but it never actually
does us any harm. Over time we may subconsciously adopt a mind-set that whilst
the severity could be very high, the probability or likelihood is so low that
it can be disregarded. Imagine passing a heavy truck in the opposite direction
on a narrow lane – the obvious action would be to slow down and pull in to the
side of the road to let it pass safely but every time you have passed a truck
no harm has come of it. So you are able to ‘deny’ the risk, despite its
blatancy, and drive on as normal with a metre or less between you and death.
So here is the final thing and I wonder if there
is a connection between the three? Modern movies, TV shows and most
significantly computer games allow us to experience horrifically dangerous and
deadly situations without suffering any (other than perhaps psychological)
harm. Could that have led to a general conditioning of westernised humanity (including
pilots) to be able to subconsciously ignore hazards and adopt risky behaviours
on the assumption that we will come to no harm however bad things look? After
all, passengers now routinely collect their baggage before evacuating an aircraft,
despite the high risk of fire and explosion. I don’t know…
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