One pilot training seminar was called “Why do smart pilots make bad decisions,” focusing on pilots who misjudged situations, risking their flight safety. It introduced three terms: expectation bias, unsafe aircraft state, and situational awareness, which women can find useful. Expectation bias is making decisions based on past experiences, not what you are experiencing today, and is why people fail to adjust their speed while driving in bad weather. An unsafe aircraft state is an aircraft condition that requires immediate corrective action, or an accident is likely. Finally, situation awareness is knowledge of what is going on around you.
A helicopter crashed in California a few years ago with a famous sports star on board. That day, the route the pilot normally flew was heavily fogged in, and rather than devise an alternate plan, he waited and kept to his original plan. Why? It was because of his expectation bias. The pilot had made this trip many times and always went this way without any problems. But, he was making a decision based on past expectations rather than what he was currently experiencing.
He was later cleared to continue, but maintain visual contact with the ground, which he failed to do. He was in an unsafe aircraft state. To avoid the threat of an accident, he needed to act immediately. But he was in a mountain pass, and he made a 90-degree turn into the mountains. His situational awareness was zero.
Women can use similar language to assess their safety and make better decisions. There is an expectation bias in going to a party or out on a date. Still, when the situation changes, they must better recognize an unsafe state and be better at situational awareness, but it's not easy.
When there is an aircraft accident, I used to get asked what I think was the cause. Often, the cause of an accident was not one thing, as was the case here. The pilot made about 50 mistakes. A little later, we will look at the experience of Rose Doyle, a character in my book, and see how many things she overlooked that eventually led up to her rape.
Now, we can apply them to what pilots call Threat Level Assessments.
