S A F E T Y
“If the pilot is having to
cope with a combination
of stress factors,
typically they are going
to be more susceptible to
this problem regardless
of experience”
Nick Gkikas, a senior systems engineer
at BAE Systems
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during a night training mission. Why an experienced pilot like
Hosomi would make such a mistake isn’t exactly clear.
But according to Dr Nick Gkikas, a flight deck and
human factors engineer at Airbus Defence and Space,
another important causal factor in spatial disorientation is
the mental and physical strain that a pilot may be operating
under because of their workload. “A lot of people might look
at an incident like this and say, ‘How is it possible that this
could happen to such an experienced pilot,’” says Gkikas.
“But they need to look at the data. If the pilot is having to
cope with a combination of stress factors – high workload
along with high physiological stress and high cognitive
demands – then typically they are going to be more
susceptible to this problem regardless of experience.”
Another reason why experience is no guarantee against
spatial disorientation is that instrument flying is “a very
fragile skill,” says McGrath, in the sense that “the brain
always wants to go back to a natural way of interpreting
our orientation.”
This means that if a pilot, either through fatigue or stress
or some other factor, is distracted they may find themselves
reverting unconsciously to this default state.
Another factor that might cause a pilot to become
distracted and then disoriented is instructions from air traffic
control (ATC), says Andy Watson, an air traffic controller
and former air traffic safety inspector in Air Traffic Safety
Oversight (ATSO) at the
FAA Headquarters in
Washington DC, USA.
“Essentially if you’re in a
bank angle without reference
to the horizon, so you’re in the
cloud, if you move your head at all
that’s where the problem comes up,”
says Watson. “So, by air traffic control
giving you a radio frequency change or a
beacon change or a change en route where the pilot
has to grab a pen and paper to write stuff down, if
the pilot moves their head, they’re going to experience
spatial disorientation.”
Watson saw exactly these types of scenarios when
he attended the daily accident briefings of the Office of
Accident Investigation and Prevention when he worked at
the ATSO. His concern about the issue led him to submit an
FAA safety recommendation to change ATC procedures for
single-pilot aircraft – who Watson believes are the type of
aircraft most at risk in these circumstances.
Watson’s recommendation was that following a turn a
pilot must first report a wings level status before receiving
any kind of instruction that might cause them to become
disoriented. He also recommended adding training for
air traffic controllers. He says his recommendation was