Page 16 - May 2019

Feature Story

Ever since the early days of commercial Power and cognitive
aviation, flight safety has steadily bias
improved. Considering the number of
flights, accidents are now extremely Being in a position of power
rare, and 70% of them are attributable to increases the risk of cognitive
human factors. This has led to research bias. The halo effect – i.e., the
in psychology, cognitive science and, tendency to judge people on the
more recently, in neuroergonomics. basis of their characteristics (such as
Researchers have been investigating ethnicity, age, cast, religion, etc.) or
factors such as drowsiness, stress, past events unrelated to the situation
attention, workload, communication, at hand – can severely affect captains.
and cognitive biases. One that has been This happened in 2011 during the hierarchy,
surprisingly overlooked is that of social approach of First Air flight 6560, when the less
relations within the cockpit. the relatively inexperienced first officer negat ive
Commercial-airline crews are made noticed that the aircraft was veering feedback he or she will
up of one or two first officers and a sightly off-course. The captain – who, openly receive from subordinates.
designated leader, the captain. While unlike the first officer, had flown many Therefore, the greater the power
all the pilots have the necessary skills times over the Arctic region – believed imbalance between the captain and the
to fly the aircraft, the captain is legally the instruments were simply adversely first officer, the higher the risk of false-
responsible for the flight. They are more impacted by the proximity of the north consensus bias in the cockpit.
experienced, better paid and often magnetic pole. Blinded by his first
significantly older than first officers. officer’s relative lack of experience, the First officers or passive
Before take-off, the captain decides captain ignored the latter’s repeated observers?
who will pilot the aircraft and who will warnings and suggestions to go around.
monitor the instruments, checklists and The mistake proved fatal to the captain, Captains aren’t the only ones to be
communication. The power imbalance the first officer and 10 passengers. affected by this power imbalance. In
between the two creates a hierarchical Captains can also be affected by the the 1970s, a study carried out in a flight
system. Depending on the situation false-consensus bias – the tendency to simulator showed that when the captains
and the pilots’ personalities, this believe that those around us approve of pretended to lose consciousness during
imbalance can sometimes compromise our ideas and actions to a far greater a landing, nearly one in four first officers
communication and adversely influence extent than is actually the case. Also, failed to take over the controls. Given
decision making. the higher a person’s position in the the changes that have taken place

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