Good morning from Atlanta!
As part of our new hire CRM course, I taught a class to new hire pilots
yesterday re: fatigue and stress management. We eventually found ourselves
discussing the idea of self assessment prior to flying... especially for
personal, family, legal stresses, etc. We even discussed personal
experiences with stressed out pilots continuing to fly.
I asked the pilots if they would tell their captain if they had any abnormal
stress on board with the potential of affecting performance... universal
answer was that they would NOT.
I asked if they would like their captain to notify them of any abnormal
stress on board that might affect his/her performance... there were a FEW
hands.
I then asked if they felt they were good at self assessment. Did they know
when to call it quits and when to continue... universally, they felt that
they were quite good at seld assessment and that no one else was better.
I am concerned about this last attitude. Are any of you familiar with
objective data indicating lost of judgment and self assessment during
periods of personal stress?
Jeff Hill
Delta Air Lines