For over 25 years, the importance of good pilot judgment, or aeronautical decision-making (ADM), has been recognized as critical to the safe operation of aircraft, as well as accident avoidance. The airline industry, motivated by the need to reduce accidents caused by human factors, developed the first training programs based on improving ADM. Crew resource management (CRM) training for flight crews is focused on the effective use of all available resources: human resources, hardware, and information supporting ADM to facilitate crew cooperation and improve decision-making. The goal of all flight crews is good ADM, and the use of CRM is one way to make good decisions.
Research in this area prompted the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to produce training directed at improving the decision-making of pilots and led to current FAA regulations that require that decision-making be taught as part of the pilot training curriculum. When tested, pilots who had received ADM training made fewer inflight errors than those who had not—differences that were statistically significant and ranged from about 10 to 50 percent fewer judgment errors. In the operational environment, an operator flying about 400,000 hours annually demonstrated a 54 percent reduction in accident rate after using these materials for recurrency training.
Contrary to popular opinion, good judgment can be taught. Building upon the foundation of conventional decision-making, ADM enhances the process to decrease the probability of human error and increase the probability of a safe flight. ADM provides a structured, systematic approach to analyzing changes that occur during a flight and how these changes might affect a flight’s safe outcome. [Figure 17-2] Steps for good decision-making are: identifying personal attitudes hazardous to safe flight; learning behavior modification techniques; learning how to recognize and cope with stress; developing risk assessment skills; using all resources; and evaluating the effectiveness of one’s ADM skills.
Risk management is an important component of ADM: when a pilot follows good decision-making practices, the inherent risk in a flight is reduced or even eliminated.
While poor decision-making in everyday life does not always lead to tragedy, the margin for error in aviation is thin, so all pilots should become familiar with and employ ADM.
