Training Startle and Surprise Management On The Flight Deck

Abstract

Startle and surprise training interventions developed and tested in previous research have shown how falling back to mnemonic aid procedures when experiencing an unexpected event during flight can ameliorate the effects of startle and surprise responses. The current research follows up on the recommendations provided by Van Middelaar et al. on the implementation of the COOL procedure which, in some cases, was also found too demanding to execute and somewhat distracting from ensuring a safe flight path. A new procedure featuring the steps Aviate Breathe Check (ABC) was developed to explicitly allow for task prioritisation (i.e. aviating over troubleshooting) and to be shorter in its execution while still addressing stress management related steps. We tested the ABC procedure with an experiment involving 25 airline pilots divided into an experimental group (n=13) and a control group (n=12) both of which experienced the same simulation scenarios designed to evoke startle and surprise. No significant effects of the type of training intervention on flying performance, on stress levels and on mental effort were found. Following events involving a sudden upset, the ABC procedure was overall shown to have a higher implementation rate compared to the COOL procedure evaluated in previous research in relation to the same test scenarios. This suggests that the ABC procedure could be more easily implemented on the flight deck. In an operational environment the ABC procedure could hence be integrated in recurrent pilot training programmes and translated into operational practice, without requiring extensive training. It is recommended to further test the procedure in a follow up experiment involving multi-crew operations and/or pilots with a more diverse training background.