Stress on the flight deck, Part 2

Last time I presented some results from the pilots who took the Aircrew Stress Study survey. The discussion focused on brief stressful events, not chronic stressors. Those brief stressful events that can occur during any civilian air transport pilot's 'day at the office' fell into three categories: events related to actually flying the aircraft; other operational events; and interpersonal events.

Pilots who took the survey were presented with a checklist of 25 such items, which they rated according to how stressful they thought each would be. The responses for most of the items were quite consistent. In other words, the pilots who rated them seemed to agree quite a lot on how stressful each would be.

Of course, there wasn't (and couldn't be) 100% agreement, so today I'll tell you about some of those differences. Remember, I'm talking about group differences, not individual differences.

First we compared the response patterns for each gender. For things having to do with flying the aircraft, and other operational events, men and women pilots concurred across the board. There were no significant differences between male and female pilots in their ratings of how stressful in-flight emergencies and other operational events would be.

The only gender difference that popped out had to do with interpersonal events -- in particular, the items about having unpleasant verbal exchanges with other members of the crew. Women pilots rated those items as more stressful than their male counterparts did. The difference wasn't huge, but it was enough to register as 'statistically significant.'

Next we looked for differences among age groups. The main finding here was that the oldest pilots in the sample -- those over age 50 -- rated most of the items as somewhat less stressful than their younger counterparts did. In particular, the older pilots rated the emergency events as significantly less stressful. My interpretation of this is that age can be considered as a kind of proxy for experience. Younger -- less experienced -- pilots have yet to encounter many of these stressful events, or they are still learning how to deal with them. Older pilots have "seen it all" and have a good handle on how to deal with most emergencies.

The only other age group difference that emerged in the data was that younger pilots, particularly those in their twenties and thirties, rated all of the interpersonal stressors as significantly less stressful than the older pilots did.

There were few differences among pilots from different regions of the world. The survey respondents were asked where they were based or domiciled. In the analysis, we grouped these according to regions: USA, Canada, Europe, Asia, and so on, to see if any there were any differences. For the event stressors, response patterns for pilots all over the world were essentially the same. The things about flying that bothered pilots in the USA the most were the same things that bothered pilots elsewhere.

Are you beginning to get a picture of pilots all over the world, male and female, responding very similarly to stressful events -- except for those older guys who aren't bothered about things as much as the younger guys? That's what it starts to look like -- until you compare the response patterns according to what type of carrier these pilots work for. That's where some differences emerged -- at least in this sample.

For this part of the analysis, we compared freight pilots, scheduled airline pilots, charter pilots, and corporate pilots. There were indeed some differences here. Let's have a look at what those were. Remember, we're looking only at brief stressful events here, not chronic stressors -- those will come later.

The responses for events having to do with flying the aircraft were quite consistent across the groups. An exception was that pilots who said they flew for US mainline carriers rated 'having to make an emergency landing' as less stressful than any other group. A cross-check of the data showed that most of the US mainline pilots in the sample were older -- so I think that this difference probably is a reflection of the 'older/more experienced' factor rather than anything about the carrier type per se.

The real differences emerged in regard to those 'other operational events.' The corporate pilots rated many of those items as more highly stressful. I've since done quite a bit of follow-up research with corporate crews, and I think I now understand why they would rate these items as more stressful. Let's look at some examples.

Compared with all other pilot groups, corporate pilots rated these items as much more stressful:

• Mechanical problem identified shortly before departure
• F/A informs you of a shortage in the cabin (meals, amenities, etc.)
• Passenger requires emergency medical care during the flight
• Security emergency at destination
  
• Having to file a NASA incident report

Airline crews rarely fly with the same crew, or on the same aircraft, and certainly not with the same passengers from one flight to the next. In contrast, corporate pilots often do fly with the same crew on the same aircraft on every trip. They are held directly responsible for the operation of the aircraft and its crew to an extent that airline pilots -- even airline captains -- are not.

Corporate pilots also fly the same passengers most of the time -- and those passengers are either the owners of the aircraft, or executives in charge of the company that owns the aircraft. In either case, they are VIPs who have high expectations in regard to reliability and service, and it is the pilot -- especially the captain -- who is held to account if things are not as they should be.

Airline pilots show up for their flight and board an aircraft that has been prepared for departure largely by others. If something goes amiss to delay departure, it's annoying, but it's not the end of the world. There are other aircraft, other crews -- other flights that the largely anonymous passengers can take, if it comes to that. Airline pilots essentially show up, fly the airplane, and then go home.

Not so for the corporate pilot, who is directly responsible for seeing that a particular aircraft is ready to go whenever the principal wishes to depart. It's the corporate pilot -- the captain -- who bears the blame if the aircraft is not in mechanical order, or if it is not properly provisioned. Likewise, the impact of a passenger becoming ill in flight are greater when that passenger owns the aircraft!

Next I'll begin to report some findings about stressful events in the aircraft cabin.

** Copyright © 2007 by Bobbie Sullivan. All rights reserved. **