I think most of us would agree that "situational awareness" refers to the ability to assimilate the wider factors of a situation that might not be individually related, and act accordingly.
Quantifying situational awareness and agreeing whether it was present is of course always going to be a matter of opinion. However in the case of Collins:
- he'd commenced a descent that was unorthodox relying only on the supposed integrity of the flight plan;
- conditions during the descent were marginal VFR at best;
- He had been unable to establish VHF comms;
- Others on the flight deck had expressed concern;
- Finding himself at 2000' (and subsequently 1500') in a DC-10 loaded with 257 people, in a region known to contain a 13,000' mountain he still found poor visual conditons.
I would feel confident in saying that most of the professional body of airline pilots would argue that Jim Collins did not display the situational awareness expected of a captain.
Last edited by PapaHotel6; 15th May 2016 at 09:35.