Automated to Sleep

Here’s a nice editorial in The New York Times.

Pilots on Autopilot

”Decades of technological enhancements and automation have made flying undeniably much safer but also fostered a subtle disconnect between pilots and the planes they fly. Designed to reduce crew workload and enhance safety, today’s highly automated aircraft can leave pilots so detached from flying that they become almost like passengers on their own flights.“

Controllers aren’t far behind. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that this is about how tough things were back in the day when men were men and the word “Captain” actually meant something. This is about human factors and the need to keep people engaged to keep them alert. It’s about automation destroying the very skills people need to do their jobs when the automation fails.

Don Brown
December 17, 2009