What Pilot’s Fear The Most

To fly a plane one needs guts, and guts only come when you take risks, and flying is all about risks. And risk never takes anybody’s side; you give it one chance and it will definitely put you in misery. Being a pilot is not an easy job; one is always going through many unwanted and hidden risks and even experienced pilots sometimes fear flying. Nowadays pilots are being well trained and educated and given state of the art aircrafts to fly for the safety of the passengers and the crew itself. But still pilots doubt their planes and skills and sometimes end up in disaster.

After interviewing many pilots, results and conclusions which were compiled showed thrilling information. Pilots who have above 10,000 hours of flying experience are never comfortable in their seats and are always prepared for emergencies which can occur any time. According to one pilot “when you are flying so fast and some sort of emergency takes place, you are so nervous and frustrated that you forget what you know and it’s your luck which can save you, everything is happing in just a few seconds”.

Here are the top five things which a well experienced and qualified pilot fears the most.

1. Spatial Disorientation

This is known as the most frightening nightmare of a pilot during moonless nights. Fighter pilots are more vulnerable to this fear. Spatial disorientation is a condition in which a pilot’s perception of direction does not agree with the reality and it is more typically a temporary condition resulting from flight into poor weather conditions with low or no visibility. Under these conditions the pilot may be deprived of an external visual horizon, which is critical to maintaining a correct sense of up and down motion while flying, and also pilots think their instruments are wrong even though they are correct and thus make wrong decisions. Once an aircraft enters conditions under which the pilot cannot see a distinct visual horizon, the drift in the inner ear continues uncorrected. If the pilot is not proficient in the use of gyroscopic flight instruments, these errors will be built up to a point that the control of the aircraft is lost.

 

 

2. Computerized Systems

Today’s jets are now fitted with computerized equipment like the multifunction display units (MFDs) and also fly by wire technology like in the Airbus A320, A330, A340 and A380. These are all good things for keeping the pilots out of stress during flight, as much of the flying is being done by the computers. But sometimes these computers become pilots’ worst enemies. The aircraft companies especially install back up computers in case of failure, but still pilots sometimes don’t trust the readings which are being shown even though they are right and thus they take their own actions which can be dangerous. This issue happened in Air Transat flight 236 when the aircraft’s computer showed drastic decrease in fuel quantity. The captain of the A330 did not believe the computer and took unnecessary measurements, thus resulting in fuel starvation. Luckily the aircraft glided and landed at Azorez. Similarly and incident took place in Peru when the aircraft’s pitot static tubes (gives necessary information on height and air speed) were blocked and thus the computer showed wrong readings to the pilots and the pilots continued to fly with the wrong readings and ultimately crashed in the sea. These pilots also experienced spatial disorientation.

 

3. Wind Shear

A silent killer which can hit you anytime, anywhere, without any notice. Wind shear is the change in wind speed or direction with height in the atmosphere. In the context of aviation, wind shear refers to the change in wind with distance along a plane’s flight path. If an aircraft experiences a sudden decrease in wind speed, it can reduce the lift on its wings to dangerously low values. The scariest part is during take off and landing where decision time is very less, thus, this is one of the most fearful times a pilot undergoes during flight. During landing the aircraft speed is already less and when it enters the wind shear the plane will either drop drastically or will deviate from approach.

4. Mechanical Failure

Well, of course this is one big issue a pilot has to undergo. There are thousands of mechanical parts which are functioning at the same time and if one goes wrong the whole chain would be disturbed, thus resulting in disaster. These mechanical parts which can go wrong are mostly in the engine and the controls of the aircraft like the rudder, elevator, ailerons and flaps. Metal fatigue can also lead to structure failure which results in unexpected and sudden loss of control which the pilot cannot control. Many aircrafts have crashed because of this and when it happens it’s worse than anyone has ever imagined and thus, pilots are literally hopeless in such situations.

 

 

5. Hijack

And last but not the least is an issue which is very scary: when the aircraft is hijacked. At this moment the pilots have to do what they are told to do while fearing for their lives. The terrorists can do anything at anytime and thus the pilots have to do their best to calm down the situation. Nowadays the aircrafts are equipped with bullet proof and bomb proof doors which can prevent the hijackers from entering the cockpit. But this is not enough and the hijackers can still take over the cabin. 

 

image credit:

Airbus

NASA

Pratt & Whitney

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