Originally Posted by Centaurus
Somatogravic Illusions are often used as the catch-all excuse for crashes like these because it's hard to believe there are airline pilots out there simply cannot fly on instruments when most of their career has been watching an autopilot do its work.
I might have thought that too until one of the military stovepipe drivers on our base (NTU) pulled up into the overcast after a normal takeoff and then came right back down and did a lawn dart, still in afterburner. And that was with a crew of two-two sets of eyes, but one set of controls!
I've been looking at possible causes for piloting failures under stressful conditions, and there is one common thread that I keep seeing:
- A startling event.
- A perceived need for quick action.
- Action taken on the basis of incomplete information, perhaps using improvised methods.
- Action continued beyond an appropriate duration.
I am not a professional psychologist, but I do have a lifetime of my own experiences to reflect upon, and what I see is a form of what is called attention tunneling.
I am posting the above observations so that others can perhaps distill
their own experiences in that light, and perhaps learn from them.