Discuss about the Stress, Mindfulness and Anxiety in Aviation.
According to Driskell & Salas (2013), accidents take place in aviation due to the sequence of mistakes. Stress, lack of concentration and anxiety of the pilot or the aircrew seem to be main reasons behind such accidents. The task that they do is not an easy one. As opined by Leonhardt & Vogt (2012), situations may occur where they lose their focus or fail to read the present situation properly resulting into a major accident. According to Wagner et al (2015), sometimes, not the individual but the organization is to be blamed for the lack of systematic scheduling of the task that has stem out of any physical and psychological reason. In such cases, one cannot do anything after the accident had already taken place. Therefore, precaution is needed to prevent it. As discussed by Wagner et al (2015), apart from technological fault, people who lead the journey are the main reason for such accidents. He continued that as soon as the reason of anxiety, stress and lack of concentration is identified, necessary measures should be taken. It takes both time and systematic procedure to overcome such psychological barriers. According to vine et al (2015), any physical problem can also be a reason and it should be identified too.
In this essay, some accidents will be analyzed to find out the way it occurred. It will help to outline the prevalent cases and the most occurred problem. After discussing the prevalent issues, some solutions will be addressed
According to Archer (2015), human factors play a major role in aviation safety and security. Before one reaches to the solution, it is important to understand how anxiety, stress and lack of concentration cause accidents. As pointed out by Ford et al (2013), for example, due to the improper use of terminology and heavy accents of Dutch KLM crew, an accident occurred in 1977. Reportedly, 583 passengers died in that accident. Again, in 1980, a misunderstanding occurred while giving holding pattern clearance. As a result, the jet collided with a mountain and 146 people died. According to Zhu & Ma (2015), in 1990, confusion between the signal “minimum fuel” and “fuel emergency” caused an accident. As focused by Kemp et al (2013), one of the striking cases happened in 1993, when a pilot failed to understand the meaning of “pull up”. One can understand form these examples, that communication barrier is a major problem because communication between the aircrews operates the whole system. However, according to Kaiser (2013), miscommunication is a result of many things. These are as follows:
According to Driskell et al (2014), communication is a two-way process that involves the sender and the receiver. All the above-mentioned points affect the transfer of the message between the sender and the receiver. Other physical and psychological problems such as stress and fatigue, ambiguity due to anxiety can damage the communication process. As opined by Meland et al (2015), stress is a psychological condition, which is related to the physical condition. Lack of proper sleep and physical exercise can make a person distressed and anxious. It also hampers the mindfulness. Lack of concentration, on the other hand, disrupts clear and logical thinking ultimately damaging the message transfer process and situation awareness. All these physical and psychological issues are interrelated. According to Ursin (2012), clear thinking that leads to decision-making is guided by the emotions. When a person is wrong, he confidently takes wrong decisions. According to Wang et al (2013, October), moreover, stress leads to confusion and discomfort. The mind can come to a point of stagnancy due to this discomfort. Self-development is the only way to solve this problem. Wang et al (2013, October) added an example, in 1994; stress factor resulted into an accident in Pittsburgh. As opined by Powell (2016), an intense level of stress hardens the skill operation. It may be that the person is skilled and had no bad reputation yet under a stressful condition he failed to manage the situation through an application of survival strategies. The pilot receives the threat and under stress, he loses the ability to continue with his high-level performance.
An effective communication can reduce the confusion within the cockpit and prevent the accident. It can make the pilot or any other aircrew aware about the situation for taking the right decision at the right time. According to Martins (2016), in aviation, English is the standardized language and the common terminologies are in English. It is because aviation is a global business serving the customers worldwide. The organization runs smoothly if the customers are happy and satisfied. As opined by Baker (2013), it demands clarity of thought, politeness, calmness and a good temper. According to Linacre & Linacre (2016), stress and anxiety can damage the communication process here. It has an effect at the organizational level because the customers expect a good service from the pilot, customer service agent, cabin crew, pilot, or from an air traffic controller. While transferring the non-verbal messages such as symbols and gestures, the situation is even more complex. The common errors can be the failure to decode the symbols, misinterpretation of runway designator, misinterpretation of height or attitude, and misinterpretation of clearances including take off, hold positions, landing and hold short. According to Ikusika (2012), any miscommunication between the pilot and the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) is dangerous. As opined by Clay-Williams & Colligan (2015), reportedly, ATC- pilot misunderstanding was the reason behind almost 200 cases of accidents previously. Apart from it, the pilot and the cabin crew also need an uninterrupted communication for the smooth workflow. As discussed by Conway et al (2013, September), whereas the psychological barriers have an impact, the physical barriers that affect the communication are the following:
Other reasons of communication barrier between the pilot and the cabin crew are the following. According to Taylor et al (2014), these factors create hazard at the time of any emergency task.
Communication barriers are present at the organizational level too, i.e. barriers within the organization. As discussed by Leonhardt & Vogt (2012), it is due to the difference in objectives for example, the safety versus service. Difference in manuals and training procedures determines the skill and ability of the aircrews and the pilot. As opined by Baker (2013), development of the skill encourages fewer instances of confusion and anxiety. Although the organizational goal remains the maintenance of safety and security, the flight crew and cabin crew have their own separate tasks and they need to fulfill them by exercising both knowledge and attention. According to Archer (2015), whereas, the flight crew is responsible for taking the aircraft safely to the destination, the cabin crew takes care of the safety of the passengers. However, for a systematic and organized workflow both the cabin crew and the flight crew work collaboratively. Thus, safety and security of the aviation is maintained and maximized.
According to Ikusika (2012), focusing on aviation sector, some specific reasons for stress can be outlined. These are the following:
As opined by Meland et al (2015), the psychological barriers include both the personal and work related problems that make an aircrew over-anxious. As a result, it affects the workflow.
Apart from it, there are some physiological barriers too. These are as following:
It is already discussed that stress and anxiety and lead to miscommunication which can hamper the skill and ability of an individual in aviation. How it affects at the organizational level is also detailed. Now, the possible solutions for the identified problems will be recommended. According to Wagner et al (2015), for the purpose of stress management, Cognitive Resilience can be a useful tool. Psychological stress is linked to physical stress. Vine et al (2015) opined that one could measure the stress level and the ability for maintaining situational awareness through CR. It is important for an aircrew to understand how much he is cognitively fit. According to Clay-Williams & Colligan (2015), consultation with the therapist is necessary in case of setting the soft benchmark to measure CR and for the hard benchmark one should go to endocrinologist. According to Ikusika (2012), hard benchmark helps to evaluate the fitness associated to stress management. Experiential learning, which includes time-limited back counting, exercise, and checking of the heart rate develop skill. According to, stress management involves a set of skills. Meland et al (2015) opined that hard benchmark becomes soft benchmark as time passes. Meland et al (2015) added that kill development through stress management develops the understanding level.
Stress is first a physical condition and then a psychological one. Therefore, it is important to reduce the physical stress. It can be done through the following:
To understand the mindfulness, the aircrews should engage in a critical analysis of the situation that they go through if they are unable to make out the problem. According to Meland et al (2015), introspection should include the following questions:
According to Driskell & Salas (2013), to be able to control the thinking process should be the objective of the aircrews for the development of mindfulness and situational awareness. According to Zhu & Ma (2015), some queries during the process of introspection can discipline the thinking process. These are the following:
Such ways of critical thinking is self- disciplined, self- directed and self-monitored. As a result of critical thinking, situation awareness is increased that leads an aircrew to take proper decision.
Conclusion
Throughout the discussion, it is brought out that human factor plays a major role in aviation. It is essential that they maintain a smooth workflow. However, the past events have showed how one simple mistake can lead to a major accident that takes away many lives. There are many interrelated reasons behind these accidents. Some happened due to the disorganized working environment, and most of them occurred because of the failure from the pilot’s side. Misunderstanding due to miscommunication seems to be one of the primary reasons. However, it is already discussed how these miscommunication can borne out of the lack of concentration and psychological stress. There are other reasons too, which create miscommunication, but stress, anxiety and lack of concentration in a pilot can become very dangerous. It is a well-known fact that the task of a pilot needs a lot of concentration, situation awareness and presence of mind. Whereas, physical stress and fatigue affects the concentration level and damages the situation, it also hampers the communication between the personnel who work together for the accomplishment of the tasks. There are some methods through which physical stress and fatigue can be overcome. It reduces the anxiety level and enables the unhindered transfer of messages between the sender and the receiver. Proper sleep and physical exercise are the two most necessary elements that remove physical stress. There are some other ways too which have been discussed. Apart from the ensuring security at the individual level, organizational framework and their working procedure have an impact on the safety and security of the aviation.
Reference
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