What Happened in the Northwest Airplane Cockpit?
Yesterday, federal investigators interviewed the pilots of the Northwest plane that overshot its Minneapolis-St. Paul destination by 110 miles last week. So far, some people have been skeptical of the pilots’ vague explanation to date: that they got distracted during a heated discussion about airline policy and lost track of time.
But I don’t find that explanation hard to buy, personally. This problem is well-known to pilots. So well-known that they have a name for it—“task saturation”—as well as specialized training to try to avoid it.
The brain works on one thing at a time. This much we know. And pilots have gotten into terrible trouble before because they were absorbed in one thing to the exclusion of all others.
Cockpit myopia was a huge issue in the 1970s, when airplane pilots started to realize that the more stressed they got, the less they saw. As stress increased, they tended to become mentally obsessed with one data point to the exclusion of all others.
Consider the story of the green light. On the evening of December 29, 1972, an Eastern Air Lines jet coming from New York City began its final approach to Miami International Airport. The flight had been uneventful, and the weather in Miami was clear. The plane carried 163 passengers, most of them holiday travelers.
But when the pilots tried to lower the landing gear, they didn’t get a green light indicating that the gear was fully down.At 11:34 P.M, the captain, who had more than three decades of experience, called the Miami control tower to explain that he would have to circle while they worked on getting the green light. The plane climbed to two thousand feet and began a wide U-turn over the airport. For the next eight minutes, the flight crew tried to figure out what was wrong. Why wouldn’t the light go on? The captain ordered two different people to try to visually confirm that the gear was down, but they couldn’t see anything in the dark.
At 11:40, a half-second alarm tone went off in the cockpit, indicating that the plane had deviated from its altitude. The transcript from the cockpit voice recorder shows that no one said anything about the alarm. It was as if they hadn’t heard it at all. The crew continued to speculate about possible reasons for the light problem. But then, two minutes later, the first officer noticed another problem.
“We did something to the altitude,” he said. “What?” the captain said.
The first officer backtracked: “We’re still at 2,000, right?”
Then the captain said, “Hey, what’s happening here?”
Another warning sound began to beep, more insistently this time. Two seconds later, the plane crashed into the Everglades, 19 miles from the airport.
Investigators would find that the plane had been in fine working order—except for the lightbulbs in the landing-gear indicator, which had burned out. While the flight crew worried about the light, the plane had dipped toward the earth. When it sliced into the soggy marshland,it disintegrated on impact. The wreckage was scattered over an area 1,600 feet long and 330 feet wide. A total of 101 people died.
The crash, and several other unnervingly similar accidents, convinced aviation researchers that pilots needed to be trained to avoid task saturation.“This happens to everybody under stress,” Rogers V. Shaw II, who trains pilots for the FAA, told me when I was working on my book. “If there’s not enough training, you get channelized on one thing, and you forget the whole big picture.”
Today, Shaw trains pilots to proactively scan their instrument panels, over and over again, to counteract the tendency to fixate on one problem. He also teaches pilots to make sure one member of the flight crew remains focused on flying the plane at all times.
It’s too soon to say if task saturation was the cause of the Northwest incident. But the prospect that it might be reminds me of the power of the green-light story—a lesson not just for pilots but for anyone who drives anything. Your brain wants to work on one thing at a time. And no, you are not different, and no, that email you feel you absolutely must read while on the highway is not actually very important.
Peter said on October 26, 2009 at 2:30 pm
I’m a bit skeptical about the “task saturation” It’s one thing to be distracted by a potentially hazardous situation, as was the case with the Eastern pilots. But a discussion of “airline policy?”
Robert said on October 26, 2009 at 4:15 pm
Good article Amanda, I buy it. For you and I, nothing could seem more important than figuring out your current position, but for pilots spending every work day up in the air, figuring out their altitude or figuring out the new overtime policy would be pretty much equally weighted tasks.
Tim said on October 26, 2009 at 8:55 pm
Pilots are now claiming they were looking at a unauthorized lap top in the cockpit as they were discussing the new flight schedule that NW/Delta had put forth and never heard the radio calls until a F/A came forward and was wondering when they were going to land because they were starting to run behind schedule….....
At least that’s what they told the NTSB who relayed that to the media…....
Interesting to find out what they were looking at on the lap top….
Amanda said on October 27, 2009 at 11:18 am
Thanks for the thoughtful comments. Still clearly more to come from this story, but I think Rob is right—what may seem trivial or profound to most of us may be perceived very differently by the pilots in the cockpit.
And I don’t think it’s unique to pilots, by the way. I don’t know about you, but I find that what seems to animate people in my own workplace is not generally the most grave issue. Food, for example. People get very passionate about free food. Inter-office politics—also a good way to get people very focused. Certainly dramatic changes to your hours and location would qualify… But of course, my offices tend not to be in cockpits…
Amanda said on October 27, 2009 at 11:25 am
Btw, here’s Delta’s apology to the passengers:
http://www.startribune.com/local/66391532.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU
And here’s the National Transportation Safety Board’s latest update: http://ntsb.gov/Pressrel/2009/091026.html
Daniel said on October 29, 2009 at 12:25 pm
I believe the same type of loss of focus or tunnel vision can be experienced while driving and talking on the phone. I don’t know if it has to be stress related, merely engaging. I have been on the phone before and near the end of the call wondered how I had gotten where I was, having no clear memory of turning etc…
Ilan Kelman said on November 03, 2009 at 5:06 am
One of my favourite quotations regarding “task saturation” or “too much focus”, so I have kept it for a while is:
“We were watching a television show on the Canadian Constitution and decided to mind our own business.”
Stated by a Toronto couple living beside the site of a car crash followed by a murder-suicide.
Quoted in The Toronto Star on 14 March 1992.
We all have our priorities.
Lawrence said on January 19, 2011 at 3:25 pm
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been driving and thinking about something else and “wake up” to notice I was tailgating someone or riding the shoulder of the road. Scary stuff. Thank god that plane didn’t crash like the other one.
Crystal said on February 24, 2011 at 10:46 am
I think this applies to so many things in life where one element of a task can completely overshadow everything else. For a pilot I can see why its now part of their training to make sure that at least one member of the crew concentrates on flying the plane even if there is a problem.
cfds said on May 26, 2011 at 5:39 am
Ain’t it funny when they come up with semi plausible explanations or even worse ? What do they think we are… children ?
restaurant chinezesc said on August 12, 2011 at 7:41 pm
When you are a pilot, especially pilot on a person airplane you are not allowed to be stressed. In your hands lies hundreds of human lives. I cannot understand how tragedies like that can happened.
Helen Olsson said on October 30, 2011 at 5:18 am
Good work! I always like to leave comments whenever I see something unusual or impressive. I think we must appreciate those who do something especial. Keep it up, thanks
Helen Olsson.
bookmarks said on November 21, 2011 at 3:21 am
It is rale wonderful for all. It affects your souls and minds from the monumental. The communicator shows the persecution and lie of your hardwork.bookmarks
dentist medford or said on December 03, 2011 at 3:01 pm
I just came across your blog and reading your beautiful words. I thought I would leave my first comment but I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
management said on December 14, 2011 at 9:34 am
Good work! I always like to leave comments whenever I see something unusual or impressive. I think we must appreciate those who do something especial. Keep it up, thanks
Helen Olsson