In the wake of Air France Flight 447 in June 2009 and more recent accidents, a lot has been said and written about how pilots are trained and about what seems to be an erosion of basic flying skills. Many subject matter experts (SMEs) agree that airline flying today suffers from what some call “the curse of ubiquitous normalcy,” that is, a professional cultural expectation of low-stress operations in which high-risk problems are so rare as to need little attention. The more robust a system becomes, the more likely people are to become complacent. This is where important advances in upset prevention and recovery training (UPRT) will come into play.
Publication of the new International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Doc 10011-2013, Manual of Upset Prevention and Recovery Training — expected in mid-October — signals a major transition for the air transport industry from a four-year period of “expert talk” about mitigating loss of control–in flight (LOC‑I) to …
