What are some barriers to situational awareness?

Situational awareness is primarily an aviation term, but can be used in other contexts. When a pilot has situational awareness, s/he has a complete and accurate mental account of the aircraft's condition and operation in the environment. Lack of, or loss of situational awareness occurs when the pilot develops an inaccurate, incorrect, or incomplete understanding of the airplane's circumstances with respect to its environs.

An example of loss of situational awareness occurred when jet engines were first introduced to passenger commercial aircraft. In poor visibility situations, pilots unfamiliar with the magnitude of thrust generated by the jet engines misinterpreted the force of being pressed back into their seats as the force due to gravity - they thought the airplane was climbing too steeply, whereas in fact it was simply accelerating more sharply than they were used to. In one particular incident, the pilot pushed the nose of the aircraft down in an attempt to reduce the rate of climb, but by doing so, he actually made the aircraft descend into the ground, and crash.

Loss of situational awareness occurs for several reasons:

· Unfamiliarity with the aircraft's operations and performance

· Failure to use all the available information

· Distraction from an unrelated concern, or information overload in crisis situations

· Fatigue

· Miscommunication

· Failure to always follow the correct procedures

· Misjudgment of the aircraft's condition and circumstances

· Incorrect, inaccurate, or contradictory information presented to the pilot

Barriers to situational awareness, that is, chronic conditions that habitually deter a pilot from developing full situational awareness include:

· Lack of training and experience

· Poor communication skills

· Poor teamwork skills

· Overconfidence in your own abilities and senses

· Complacency

· Lack of sufficient sleep

· Under pressure to meet external demands, such as on-time schedules

· Poor aircraft maintenance

Stress/panic and complacency Both of the above.