Why Are Flight Psychologists Important to Flight Safety?

Abstract

The developments in aircraft technologies both in our country and around the world cause a serious increase in both the aircraft fleets and ticket sales, as well as the number of airline companies, their employees and passengers. These developments in the aviation industry necessitate flight safety and highlight the importance of the human factor (flight crew) by reducing the causality of technical factors in ensuring safety. Studies within this scope show that the main causal factor (65-70%) in aircraft crashes is the flight crew. There are many factors such as physiological, psychological, personal and psychosocial at the basis of the unsuccessful performance of the flight crew. However, the number of studies in the literature that draw attention to the psychological elements of the flight crew is very few. In fact, it is known that the psychological well-being of the flight crew is important for the success of the flight operations, but the airline companies do not have any evaluation obligation regarding this. On the contrary, some negative consequences may be encountered due to the freedom in this matter. In particular, the fact that human factor causation is at a much higher level than previously thought in plane crashes increases the importance of flight psychologists for airline companies today. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to reveal the importance of flight psychologists on flight safety in civil aviation. In this context, interviews were held with the flight crews of two airlines (private-public). The findings show that flight psychologists are important and necessary in airline companies in order to be able to perform safe flights with healthier flight crews.