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Organizational Stress Sources in Pilots

A survey of commercial pilots showed some of the main sources of stress to be:

•A lack of control or disruption of events in their lives.

•Scheduling and rostering.

•Insufficient hands-on flying.

•Anxiety over courses/checks.

•Home to work interface.

•Career prospects and achievements.

•Lack of responsibility and decision making.

•Fatigue and flying patterns.

Of significance in the above list is insufficient flying. The modern airliner is most efficiently and economically operated by automatic control, indeed it is the policy of many airlines that the flight management system should operate the aircraft for more than 96% of its flight time. Whilst modern systems and their back-ups are undoubtedly extremely reliable, many pilots are worried that the systems may fail and are unsure of their ability to manage the aircraft themselves. A pilot flying the maximum allowable duty hours may have very little actual handson time per month.

Stress Effects

Stress has effects on the body, the mind, and the health and thus the performance of the individual. The short-term effects of a sudden source of stress will be caused by the ‘fight or flight’ response.

Performance

Figure 7.5 shows the relationship between stress and performance. Like the arousal/ performance graph it is an inverted U curve, however, there is a “break point”.

When there is little or no stress, there is a drop in vigilance and performance is poor. As stress increases performance increases up to the optimum - the “break point”- after which, if stress continues to rise, performance is degraded.

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PERFORMANCE BREAKPOINT

		STRESS LEVEL
NO	MEDIUM	INTENSE
STRESS	STRESS	STRESS
	MOTIVATION

Figure 7.5 Comparison of performance and stress levels

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Health Effects

The long-term effects of chronic stress damage a person’s health. The effects are usually seen earliest in the gastrointestinal system, and symptoms include nausea, indigestion, diarrhoea and, after an extended period of time, ulcers. There is evidence of a connection between stress and coronary heart disease and high blood pressure. Those who suffer stress have a higher than normal risk of getting of asthma, headaches, sleep disorders and neuroses. They also are much more likely to have allergies, skin diseases and tend to suffer more from colds and influenza.

Behavioural Effects

When under stress the individual will exhibit restlessness, trembling, or may have a nervous laugh. There will be a tendency to take longer over tasks and there may well be excessive changes in appetite and an increase in smoking or drinking.

Moods swings are also a common symptom of stress. Some individuals become aggressive in the cockpit towards other members of the crew and/or outside agencies (ATC). On the other hand, others submit to the situation with an air of resentfulness and frustration. Either way there is a loss of flexibility. Alternatively, there are some individuals who react to stress by a tendency to rush into decisions. Fewer parameters are taken into account and, therefore, the risk of errors is increased.

Cognitive Effects

Stress has a major effect on the thought process with forgetfulness being an early symptom. The ability to think and to concentrate is reduced and there is an inability to determine priorities or make decisions. Correct actions are forgotten and procedures learnt in the past are substituted. This is known as regression.

Fixation or “mental block,” is another symptom, where it becomes impossible to review what has been done and consider other solutions.

A further cognitive effect is confirmation bias, which is discussed further in Chapter 8. This is a compulsive and repeated search for information to confirm a decision reached.

Stress causes the mind to limit its attention to only those factors it feels it can cope with and to ignore additional inputs which may be vital in assessing a situation accurately. This loss of situational awareness and “not being able to see the wood for the trees” has been the root cause of many accidents.

In one case, when debriefed after escaping successfully from a burning aircraft, passengers reported how quiet everything around them seemed to be. It was stress that caused them to concentrate only on their escape, the screams around them were never registered.

It is commonly accepted that auditory information is the first to be discarded under extreme stress.

Coping with Stress

Stress Awareness

In order to cope with stress it is fundamental that there is an awareness that the problem exists. An individual who recognizes the fact that he/she is suffering from stress is a long way along the road to identifying the source(s) and overcoming the problem. Once recognized, the object is to change our attitudes or our environment in order to re-establish harmony between the two.

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Among any population there is a wide variation in how stress is perceived. At one extreme, individuals suppress knowledge of problems and thereby appear not to perceive them or require stress coping strategies. At the other extreme are those who are highly sensitive to problems and will anticipate difficulties not perceived by others and employ coping strategies to avoid the stress experience.

Coping strategies may be classified into three categories:

•Action Coping.

•Cognitive Coping.

•Symptom Directed Coping.

Action Coping

In action coping the individual attempts to reduce stress by taking some action. He reduces the level of demand by either removing the problem or changes the situation so that it becomes less demanding. For example a pilot asked to fly in marginal conditions could refuse, thus removing the immediate stressor. However, this action could lead to another stressor - loss of employment.

The demand could be changed, however, by delaying take-off for a few hours when the weather is forecast to improve. In this case, reducing the perceived demand of the original task, without substituting another stressor. The individual may also hand over some tasks, either to other crew members, or to Air Traffic Control by asking for, as an example, assistance in navigation.

The individual may remove himself from the stress situation by changing his job, or in the case of domestic stress, by divorce. These methods may, however, only substitute one source of stress for another. Clearly in many cases it is impossible to undertake this kind of solution.

Cognitive Coping

As action coping cannot change some situations, cognitive coping involves reducing the impact of stress on the individual. Our brain can employ ‘defence mechanisms’ which operate outside our conscious awareness; a system of repression or denial to prevent the conscious brain from even becoming aware of the stressor.

Other strategies involve rationalization or detachment which may change the perceived magnitude of the problem. “Pretend it’s a simulator detail the same as the one you did last week” will enable the conscious mind to perceive the problem as having a solution.

Symptom Directed Coping

Some of the symptoms of stress may be relieved by the use of drugs. In this context the drugs may be relatively simple such as coffee or tea. Other cases may be eased by the use of alcohol or tobacco.

It must be emphasized that only the symptoms are treated by this form of coping and that the stressor(s) will remain until addressed separately.

Coping with Stress on the Flight Deck

Coping is the process whereby the individual either adjusts to the perceived demand of the situation or changes the situation itself. Some coping changes appear to be carried out unconsciously; it is only if they are unsuccessful that we consciously take note of the stressor. To reduce the effect of stress in flight involves mainly psychological mechanisms and includes behavioural patterns which can be learned.

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Individually one must learn and acquire experience to develop automatic responses which cost little in energy and strongly resist stress:

•A thoroughly professional approach to training will increase the range of responses available to the individual and will reduce the chances of meeting unknown situations. Hence the emphasis on regular simulator flights when any emergency can be practised in a safe environment.

•One should learn from the past, including the experience of others.

•Thorough preflight briefing and preparation will allow the individual to anticipate events. The pilot must be prepared for all incidents which could, plausibly, arise during the flight.

Crew Resource Management (CRM) will teach techniques for sharing and allocating tasks to prevent any one individual becoming overloaded and will highlight the effective use of all members’ knowledge to increase the range of possible responses. It should improve everyone’s awareness of the situation, and, by combined efforts, allow for the creation of new ideas.

A good atmosphere on the flight deck is a great help in a stressful situation and humour can be an effective antidote to stress.

There are five major guidelines to prevent stress affecting safety:

•Keep it simple and basic - fly the aircraft.

•Accept the situation - do not attempt to conceal the facts or danger.

•Use all crew resources (group support).

•The captain (unless incapacitated) must make the decisions and control the situation.

•Never give up: there is always a suitable response.

Stress Management Away from the Flight Deck

The success of any stress management programme will be determined by the individual’s willingness to recognize the source of his/her stress and the determination to do something about it. A good stress management programme should be both:

•Preventative (finding ways to keep stress levels to a minimum) and

•Curative (providing ways of reducing existing levels of stress) Helpful techniques can include:

•Health and Fitness Programmes

Regular physical exercise reduces tension and anxiety and makes it much easier to withstand fatigue. Physical fitness also improves cognitive function and improves reaction times.

•Relaxation Techniques

Meditation, self-hypnosis, yoga, and biofeedback can all help to reduce tension by mental and physical (muscle) relaxation or control of heart rate and blood pressure.

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