Zoning out in the cockpit

Everybody zones out while driving. You have automatic transmission, cruise control, collision-avoiding brake systems, computer-assisted parallel parking – there’s nothing else to do except try to text without getting caught.

It’s just as bad for airline pilots. Steve Casner is a research psychologist with NASA and he conducted a test. He put 16 working 747 pilots in NASA’s super-realistic flight simulator.

“We ask them to fly the plane completely hands-off, using everything that was available in the cockpit,” explained Casner. “What we did then was basically start turning things off.”

Yes, he started turning things off: the automatic throttle, then automatic steering, finally the GPS guidance system went dark.

No pilot actually crashed the simulator, but they got confused in a hurry because it turns out they weren’t paying close attention to their position.

“When we sit in front of a computer, like a GPS that just impeccably navigates time after time, people just get confused about where they are,” Casner said.

Confused to the point that they would land at the wrong airport.

It happened regardless of how experienced pilots were. It happened even to pilots with military training. In fact, it’s happened to Steve himself.

“It’s irresistible activity to think about something else when your mind and attention aren’t needed by those computers,” Casner said.

But before anyone is tempted to think it’s time to put a stick shift back in the cockpit – there’s no question the reason flying is by far the safest way to travel is because of all that automation.

What his research does suggest is that you may need a different personality type in the cockpit than before.

“Choosing someone not on their ability to do something, but to watch a computer do something,” Casner said.

Then they know exactly what to do on the rare day a computer decides to go dark.