Brain Training
I'm not a pilot, so I'm not about to comment on blame, cause, or prevention of this accident. But I feel I should pass on things I have learned from my career.
For over thirty years I spent work days making observations of alpha-numeric data and recording it in a log book, sometimes hundreds of observations a day. An error of even a single number would have a negative outcome, each and every time.
The first year I had an error every few weeks. The second year I had only three or four errors. The last 20 years I had no errors, none, nada, zero.
The human brain is not set for long periods of maximum concentration. But with practice one can train their mind to go from casual to maximum concentration and back to casual at will.
It appears to me that flight, and particularly preparation for flight, requires a multitude of settings and instrument observations. My guess is that some of you occasionally make an error, probably more often than you think. If you were writting all observations in a log and the instruments were also recording the same, a comparision of the two, and getting docked a days pay for each error would soon change how you operate.
Here are some of my tricks to getting it right every time as applied to pilots. When making an observation, vocalize exactly what you see. Say it out loud at the very time you are actually looking at the setting. For example, if the instrument is a light that can be green , yellow, or some other color, you should not say good, check, on/off, or some other meaning expressed by the instrument. If it is a green light, say the word "green" while looking directly at the light.
Your mind can play tricks on you. Look at an instrument hundreds of times where the light is always green, say the word "check". One day the light will be yellow, but your mind will anticipate "green". You are apt to say "check" and move on. But if you have been saying "green" and one day the light is yellow, when you look at the instrument and say green, your eyes say yellow and your mind rebels. For it to work you must be looking at the light at the instance you say the word.
Vocalize exactly what you see, not what an oberservation means. If it is a gage, digital or analog, read the value! I suppose there must be a heading indicator on the panel. If one of the pilots of the Comair had looked at it and said out loud "azimuth 259", would we be reading this thread?
If a lever or other setting has an indicator that points to words or numbers, say exactly those words while you read them. For example, if a flap setting indicator points to the number "2" meaning 20%, say the word "two" not check or 20%.
The other member of the flight crew is going to think you are an absolute nut case. But you will live to retirement, he may not.