Agree, it has never affected me in 32 years of flying.
If indeed it was a big deal there would be wrecks scattered around the country side by the thousands..
A bit of basic instrument skills should mitigate any S.I. and S.I. should not be a reason or an excuse to fly an operable craft into the ground.
Isn't that a rather gung-ho position to take? For one there
have been SI related crashes and the causes are well understood in medical circles. The human brain is a highly interconnected, particularly when it comes to ears-and-eyes. Our sense of balance is tuned to our normal physical function - walking, running, climbing, etc. Believe it or not humans have only been hurling ourselves around in the sky for what, a little over 100 years. So our normal senses are not designed for what can happen in an aircraft. I have seen people fall over in simulators (particularly with the motion turned
off, and the visual on) simply because of SI.
SI is insidious since by the time you are aware of it, it may well be too late. To dismiss this at this point seems over-zealous.
Obviously most pilots, following normal procedures, instrument scans, etc, are not going to succumb, but that does not mean it doesn't happen - particularly when something unexpected occurs. In this case something appears to have initiated the crew to attempt a go-around, so something unexpected occurred - we don't know what - perhaps visibility. However that is exactly when an SI situation might be expected to occur.
It does frustrate me - just because it hasn't happened to you (yet) doesn't mean it never will, or won't happen to someone else. Evolution is something that takes thousands of years - or are you somehow different?
- GY