Last updated: July 31, 2015


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Monitoring cockpit systems isn't easy for pilots

The challenges of being an airline pilot

The human brain is not wired to continually pay attention to instruments. Picture: Supplied Source: Supplied


The human brain is not wired to continually pay attention to instruments that rarely fail or show discrepancies, a panel of experts told an annual safety conference of the Airline Pilots Association, the world's largest pilots union. As a result, teaching pilots how to effectively monitor instruments is now as important as teaching them basic "stick-and-rudder" flying skills, they said.




"The human brain filters out information it considers unchanging," Helena Reidemar, an airline pilot and the pilots union's director of human factors, said.



Robert Sumwalt, an NTSB board member, said: "The question is, did the pilots recognise they were slow? And if not, why not?"



In 2007, after an investigation of a business jet accident in Pueblo, Colorado, the board recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration require that pilot training programs be modified to contain segments that teach and emphasise monitoring skills and how to manage multiple tasks, Sumwalt said. Since then, the board has twice repeated the recommendation in response to other accidents, he said.


The board does not believe the advice goes far enough, and has categorised FAA's response as "unsatisfactory," Sumwalt said.