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What is the practical TEM chain of threat → error → undesired aircraft state? start learning
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A threat increases operational complexity; an error is crew action or inaction that leads away from intentions or expectations; an undesired aircraft state (UAS) is a resulting aircraft position, condition or configuration that reduces safety margins.
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What is the primary objective of Threat and Error Management? start learning
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Anticipate and manage threats, trap errors before they create consequences, and recover promptly from undesired aircraft states.
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What is the difference between an anticipated and an unexpected threat? start learning
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Anticipated threats can be identified during planning or briefing; unexpected threats emerge without sufficient warning and require recognition and adaptation.
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Does the occurrence of an error necessarily mean the operation has become unsafe? start learning
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No. Safety depends strongly on whether the error is detected, trapped and corrected before it produces an undesired aircraft state.
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What should take priority once an undesired aircraft state has developed? start learning
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Recover the aircraft to a safe state before analysing why the error occurred.
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What is the difference between a slip/lapse and a mistake? start learning
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A slip or lapse is an execution or memory failure despite a correct plan; a mistake results from an incorrect plan, judgement or understanding.
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How is a violation different from an error? start learning
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A violation is an intentional deviation from a rule or procedure; an error is not an intentional departure.
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What are the three practical levels of situational awareness? start learning
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Perceive what is happening, understand what it means, and anticipate what is likely to happen next.
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What is shared situational awareness? start learning
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A sufficiently common understanding among crew members of the aircraft state, environment, plan, threats and likely next events.
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Why is verbalising a developing threat useful even when both pilots can see it? start learning
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It aligns mental models and makes subsequent monitoring and decision-making more effective.
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What is attention tunnelling? start learning
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Excessive concentration on one task or cue while relevant information elsewhere is missed.
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start learning
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Continuing to focus on a problem, hypothesis or course of action despite evidence that attention should shift elsewhere.
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What is confirmation bias? start learning
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Seeking or interpreting information in a way that supports an existing belief while discounting contradictory evidence.
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What is plan-continuation bias? start learning
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The tendency to continue with the original plan despite changing conditions that increasingly favour another course of action.
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How can a crew reduce confirmation and plan-continuation bias? start learning
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Actively search for disconfirming evidence, reassess at predefined decision points and explicitly discuss viable alternatives.
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Why are monitoring and cross-checking active tasks rather than passive observation? start learning
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The monitoring pilot must compare actual aircraft state and trajectory with the intended state and intervene when deviations develop.
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What should the PM monitor during high-workload phases beyond checklist completion? start learning
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Flight path, energy state, automation modes, clearances, configuration, threats and the PF’s actions.
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Why should deviations be called early rather than waiting to see whether they correct themselves? start learning
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Early intervention requires smaller corrections and prevents normal deviations from developing into undesired aircraft states.
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What is the purpose of standard callouts? start learning
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To create predictable triggers for shared awareness, cross-checking and intervention.
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What is an authority gradient? start learning
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The interpersonal difference in perceived authority between crew members that can influence willingness to challenge or contribute.
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Why can both an excessively steep and an excessively flat authority gradient be hazardous? start learning
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Too steep suppresses challenge and information flow; too flat can weaken leadership, role clarity and timely decision-making.
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What does effective assertiveness look like in the cockpit? start learning
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State the concern clearly, explain the risk when useful, propose or request action and escalate if the safety issue remains unresolved.
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What is graded assertiveness? start learning
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Escalating communication from inquiry or concern to an explicit challenge and, if necessary, decisive intervention as the threat becomes more urgent.
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What is closed-loop communication? start learning
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A message is sent, acknowledged or repeated by the receiver, and the sender confirms that the intended information was correctly understood.
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Why are assumptions particularly hazardous in multi-crew operations? start learning
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One crew member may believe information, intentions or responsibilities are shared when the other has a different mental model.
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What is effective delegation under high workload? start learning
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Assign clear tasks to available resources while the person with primary responsibility retains overall awareness and verifies critical results.
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Why should crews ask for help early? start learning
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Additional capacity is most useful before workload becomes saturation and situational awareness begins to deteriorate.
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start learning
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Workload exceeds available cognitive capacity, causing prioritisation, monitoring and decision quality to deteriorate.
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What is the practical response to excessive workload? start learning
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Prioritise, simplify, use automation appropriately, delegate, delay non-essential tasks and protect flight-path control.
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Why is “aviate, navigate, communicate” still useful in highly automated aircraft? start learning
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It protects the hierarchy of priorities when workload or abnormal situations threaten to draw attention away from aircraft control.
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Why can interruptions cause disproportionate errors? start learning
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They break working memory and task sequence, making omissions or duplicated actions more likely when the original task is resumed.
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What is a useful defence after an interruption during a procedure? start learning
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Deliberately identify where the procedure was interrupted and re-establish the correct point before continuing.
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What is automation complacency? start learning
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Reduced vigilance because the crew assumes automation will continue to operate correctly.
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What is automation overreliance? start learning
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Depending on automation beyond its capabilities or continuing to use it when simpler/manual control would provide better situational awareness.
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What is the best response when automation increases rather than decreases confusion? start learning
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Reduce the level of automation until the aircraft response is clearly understood and controlled.
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What is the difference between surprise and startle? start learning
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Surprise is an unexpected mismatch between expectation and reality; startle is the immediate physiological and cognitive reaction to a sudden threatening stimulus.
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How can startle impair pilot performance? start learning
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It can temporarily narrow attention, disrupt working memory, delay action and provoke inappropriate or excessive responses.
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What is the key response to startle in an aircraft upset or abnormal event? start learning
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Maintain or regain aircraft control, recognise the actual situation, avoid impulsive action and then apply the appropriate procedure.
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What does resilience mean in CRM? start learning
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The ability to recognise changing conditions, adapt effectively, recover from disruption and restore safe operation.
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Why can excessive stress degrade performance? start learning
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It narrows attention, reduces working-memory capacity and flexibility, and can impair judgement and communication.
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Can very low workload also reduce performance? start learning
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Yes. Underload can reduce vigilance and increase complacency, missed cues and delayed detection of changes.
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What are the main operational effects of fatigue? start learning
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Reduced vigilance, slower reaction, impaired judgement, poorer memory, weaker monitoring and increased susceptibility to errors.
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Why is subjective alertness an unreliable measure of fatigue? start learning
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People may underestimate their own impairment, particularly after prolonged wakefulness or repeated sleep restriction.
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start learning
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The cumulative performance impairment resulting from insufficient restorative sleep over time.
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Why can circadian rhythm impair performance even after apparently adequate rest? start learning
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Human alertness varies biologically with time of day, producing predictable periods of reduced performance independent of recent workload.
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start learning
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A brief involuntary episode of sleep or loss of effective attention, potentially lasting only seconds but sufficient to miss critical information.
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Why is caffeine not a substitute for sleep? start learning
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It can temporarily improve alertness but does not restore the cognitive and physiological functions provided by adequate sleep.
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Why is hypoxia particularly dangerous from a human-factors perspective? start learning
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It can impair judgement, attention and coordination before the affected person recognises their own impairment.
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Why is relying on subjective symptoms a poor defence against hypoxia? start learning
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Hypoxia itself reduces the ability to recognise and correctly interpret those symptoms.
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Why are vestibular sensations unreliable when external visual references are absent? start learning
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The inner ear primarily senses changes in motion rather than sustained motion and can create convincing false sensations of attitude or acceleration.
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What is the somatogravic illusion? start learning
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Rapid linear acceleration can be perceived as excessive nose-up attitude, while deceleration can be perceived as nose-down.
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What is the fundamental defence against spatial disorientation in IMC? start learning
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Trust and cross-check reliable flight instruments rather than bodily sensations.
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How can an unusually narrow or wide runway affect visual approach perception? start learning
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A narrow runway may create the illusion of being too high; a wide runway may create the illusion of being too low.
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How can runway slope affect visual approach perception? start learning
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An upsloping runway may create an impression of being high; a downsloping runway may create an impression of being low.
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What is a black-hole approach illusion? start learning
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At night with few surrounding visual cues, a pilot may perceive the aircraft as higher than it really is and unintentionally fly a low approach.
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What is the key defence against visual approach illusions? start learning
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Cross-check visual perception against objective vertical-path and flight-instrument information.
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