The COVID-19 pandemic has presented multiple threats and challenges to the aviation industry, including the “subtle erosion of cognizance and execution that comes with reduced flight time,” the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) says.1
The July issue of the ASRS Callback said the effects of the pandemic and the accompanying loss of skills are predictable, beginning with the lack of recent flying experience and newly instituted procedures and flows dictated by the virus.”
In the past, a similar degradation of skills has occurred, on a smaller scale, after an extended vacation, a layoff or a medical issue that has forced a cutback in flight time and led to a corresponding decrease in proficiency, ASRS said, adding that with the pandemic, the reduction of flight time has been extreme, and crewmembers, operators and the civil aviation authorities have all begun to address the corresponding decrease in p…
