Pilots are problem solvers. Recently, with the proliferation of automated cockpits, problems have elicited the question: “Why is the airplane doing that?” These types of problems, involving anomalous events with unknown causes, often are the hardest to solve and present some especially difficult hazards.
Anomalous events can divert the attention of the flight crew from their normal safety-critical duties and create abnormal levels of confusion and pressure. The power of anomalous events to absorb the flight crew’s attention cannot be underestimated. In some cases, they have the unnerving and completely absorbing effect of a hand grenade rolling into the cockpit and stopping between the two pilots.
The IHTAR (“I have the aircraft and radios; you have everything else”) model is a process for managing anomalous events and preventing them from becoming anomalous emergencies. This procedural model is designed to do two things: first, to maintain the operational integrity of the …
