Have you ever lost your 'situational awareness' at work like airline pilots do?

[Philosoraptor]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/oct/23/northwest-pilots-argument-miss-runway



Many a person has missed their stop on a bus or train at one time or another because they were engrossed in a weighty conversation or a book.

But when the pilots of Northwest Airlines flight 188 became distracted it had more serious consequences as they overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles.

"They were in a heated discussion over airline policy and they lost situational awareness," the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) explained.

When the pilots got their "situational awareness" back they turned the Airbus A320 around and landed it safely on Wednesday evening, apparently without any of the 144 passengers realising they had taken a roundabout route.
------------------------

Don't you just HATE IT when that happens? Losing your situational awareness right in the middle of, oh let's say 'surgery' when all of a sudden you totally forget where you're at and what you're doing......Bummer.

Were the pilots arguing, or sleeping?.......

[scheming daemons]

1. Yeah.....it's called "dozing off"

[Lochloosa]

2. Only when I am playing spades

Ooopps

[DontTreadOnMe]

3. I was once at...

a Pink Floyd show and about half way through the show I lost my "situational awareness".

Enjoyed every minute.

[MrModerate]

4. When *I* lose situational awareness at work, I make a typing mistake . . .

[Philosoraptor]

6. text driving, drunk driving, stoned driving, & the dreaded LSA syndrome is worst

...uh oh,....I'm losing situational awaaa.....zzzzzzzzzzzzz

[stray cat]

5. When I miss a turn off - its seldom for 150 miles

[Fumesucker]

12. Yeah, but I doubt you drive 500 mph either..

:rofl:

[Mopar151]

24. Would if I could, brotha

The wheel-driven record (2-way avg., measured mile) is 430&change.

This is what it looks like...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqO6msKE4G4

Twin supercharged Donovan Hemi's, 4wd. built and campaigned by the Burkland family from Montana.

[Fumesucker]

26. Holy Shit!

:rofl:

The doppler on that fucker was awesome..

I wanted to see what it looked like.

Nice..

[Xithras]

30. Well, to be fair, it's very different for an airline pilot.

When you miss a turn off, you can see that you've missed your turn off. An airline pilot at altitude can't see much of anything. From their perspective, Nebraska looks just like North Dakota. It's not like they're sitting there watching the ground out those little tiny windows to see where they are. "Oh no Frank, I see I-5! We were supposed to start descending for LAX when we crossed the 210!"

At 500MPH, overshooting by 150 miles simply requires an 18 minute conversation. How many times in your life have you been engaged in a conversation, looked up at the clock, and said, "Wow, look at the time!"

Now imagine doing that at 500MPH. Oops.

[HipChick]

7. sleeping or having sex..

[Ian David]

8. Maybe they were having sex? n/t

[adamuu]

9. it's a dilemma

According to Cpt. Chesley Sullenberger, pilots are not paid anywhere near what their responsibilities are worth. Some of the pilots interviewed in "Capitalism" cited -- let's just say except for following their dreams of one day paying off their student loans, they would be better off working in fast food.

I don't know what I'd do if I were a pilot. If I quit, someone even less competent would take the job. I don't know how they keep a lid on the resentment and despair.

We're screwn.

[thunder rising]

10. I wonder if fighter planes were scrambled? I'm sure ATC was going nuts on the radio.

[redqueen]

32. They were in the process of doing that, yes.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6887311.ece

[canoeist52]

11. As an artist, my goal is to lose lose my situational awareness.

It's called getting into the "zone". I try not to do it while operating machinery.

[lunatica]

16. Ha-hahahahah! Two hours later you've created a masterpiece

But you're in Peoria. And puzzled....

I love the "zone" too!

I'm an artist too

[Are_grits_groceries]

13. *snort*

Every now and then in the classroom, my mind would walkabout. A student would ask me what page they needed to look on, and I might say something like "Blue!" They would give me a sideways glance like we need to watch her carefully for a while.

I found out something interesting when this happened. If I said it with enough confidence and force, they would begin to wonder what they had asked.

[whyverne]

14. They missed their exit and it gets compared to the Titanic?

Jeez, what do you think?
Reprimands, fire them all, stone them to death?

[crispini]

15. People who drive keyboards for a living do this all the time.

Just with less important consequences.

[pipi_k]

23. Yep, so right...

I was a data entry clerk for a couple of years. Nothing but numbers numbers numbers all day long.

I could practically take a nap with my eyes open while my fingers did all the work on auto pilot.

[surrealAmerican]

33. In this case the "consequence" was that they got where they were going ...

... maybe 45 minutes late. In the scheme of things, that's not exactly dire.

[crispini]

40. Exactly, I totally agree.

but their airline doesn't -- they may lose their jobs, which I hope they don't.

[Shagbark Hickory]

17. I'm losing situational awareness as we speak.

[madokie]

20. Shagbark hickory

I plan to gather up some bark and make some shagbark hickory syrup, what you think of that?
Over at our old home place we have a giant shagbark hickory tree for me to get some bark from. From what I've found out so far that is what the syrup is made from or the flavor for the sugar syrup which actually it is. I haven't done it in a while, like a few years, but I've made my own maple syrup before and I have to say that it sure is worth the effort it takes to gather and make.:hi:

http://www.foodreference.com/html/fshagbarkhickorysyrup.html

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=shagbark+hickory+syrup&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g1g-m1

[Shagbark Hickory]

28. What I think is...

What I think is you should not monkey with the tree and leave its bark intact. Shagbark hickories are very desirable slow growing trees and one mustn't strip the bark away. Stick with Aunt Jemima.

[madokie]

35. You use the bark that is going to be falling off here shortly anyway

If you'll notice there is always a pretty good pile of bark on the ground around them it's because they shed the bark and thats the bark you use. You don't strip the bark away from the tree at all

[Shagbark Hickory]

37. Then knock yourself out. You can then dip your nuts in it.

If you figure out how to do it, let me know how it tastes.
I'd be interested in dipping my nuts in the syrup.

[madokie]

42. You know what you can do with that

big boy

[Jim__]

18. Sure. One time the guy in the next cube forgot to wake me when it was time to leave.

I stayed at work until 9:00 P.M. Then they gave me a hard time about paying me for the extra hours.

[madokie]

19. Only when tripping on acid have I

and thats been a long time, not sure I ever made it all the way back from that last trip either;-)

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

21. When I was having wisdom teeth removed once

the oral surgeon and his assistant were going on and on about some litter of puppies his dog had. I was thinking the whole time - hey! pay attention! I got novocain, some injected sodium pentathol, followed by a mask of nitrous oxide (I think this is what they gave me). I woke up covered in blood. When I went back for my checkup, they pulled my file and the doctor said right in front of me - "We gave her x and x and X ??!!!" to his assistant and they both turned a pale shade of green. I thought that I was lucky that I didn't go into cardiac arrest or stop breathing in what was supposed to be a routine procedure. I looked right at them and said - "Oh you guys were all about the puppies when I was getting the teeth removed."

[bigwillq]

22. When I am facebooking!

But no other lives are in jeopardy when I do it. :P ;) :)

[KansDem]

25. I lost my situation awareness just this very morning!

I've been working downtown for some 12 years now and know it fairly well. But this morning I turned left onto a one-way street growing the wrong way! Fortunately, there was very little traffic and I was able to negotiate a retreat into a driveway until I could get turned around.

But I thought "Hey? What's up with this? I've been driving on this street daily for years but never going the wrong way!"

Now I know it was because I lost my situational awareness.

I wonder how that would work on police officers and court judges...???

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

27. I can show you countless videos of people losing situational awareness.

or not having very good situational awareness in the first place.

[TwilightGardener]

29. Yes, I have. I'm a little scatterbrained, and not a good multi-tasker.

[WolverineDG]

31. Yeah, but I'm not flying tin cans full of people nt

[surrealAmerican]

34. It says exactly what they were doing IN YOUR POST:

"They were in a heated discussion over airline policy"

That's not sleeping, although it might be arguing.

[Gormy Cuss]

45. The post states the explanation offered by the pilots. There's considerable suspicion about it.

In fact, most aviation experts think sleeping is a more plausible explanation. These pilots ignored voice, data, and cell phone contact attempts by ATC. They were finally raised by a flight attendant using the intercom and pilots on other flights who called them using the Denver ATC frequency because they hadn't switched over to the Minneapolis frequency.

So which sounds more plausible: two trained, experienced pilots ignored a whole series of routine contact requests because they were "discussing" airline policy, or because they had both dozed off?

[ipfilter]

36. I lost mine once on the flight deck of the USS Lincoln

I was walking from the forward cat back to the island. Some yellow shirt started pointing and when I looked in that direction I was staring at the exhaust of a running F-14 engine about 6 feet from my face. Good thing the air boss didn't see that.

[MindPilot]

38. Don't airliners have navigational computers?

Doesn't it like beep or something when you get to the destination?

Maybe it's like my reaction just before I lock my keys in the car; "what the hell is that beeping noise?"

[wroberts189]

41. Yes..it was my understanding they are all basically on auto pilot these days...

At least through the flight.

Someone correct me.

[bertman]

39. HELL YEAH!! Do it all the time. But, hey, I'm the BOSS.

B-)

[Catshrink]

43. Teachers are experts at situational awareness

Are the kids getting the point? Are they paying attention? Is someone texting? sleeping? What's in the water bottle? So and so is staring out the window looking forlorn again - should I call her mom? Another kid is writing on the desk, someone else through trash in the lab sink. Oh, is that a Corona shirt? Is that top too low cut?* Keeping track of 30+ kids is easy, anyone can do it -- and teach 'em something, too.


* Yeah, along with teaching and monitoring students, we're required to check for dress code. If we don't, we get written up.

[TexasObserver]

44. sleeping

[Festivito]

46. Five to ten minutes. Plus another five to turn around.

150 miles is not that much time doing 600 miles per hour.

I could see ignoring the calls a bit.

The one pilot's voice sounds groggy even when talking to media while by the trunk of his car.

Need more info before hanging these guys for sleeping.

[vadawg]

47. yes

[varelse]

48. I do that nearly every day

and not just at work. It's one reason I don't drive.