A survey of spatial disorientation incidence in Polish military pilots

Abstract

The study aimed to establish the current incidence and severity of spatial disorientation (SD) in Polish military pilots when flying different aircraft types over their entire careers, and to determine how SD training and pilots' flight experience might benefit their recognition of situations that may cause SD. Material and Methods: Overall, 176 military Polish pilots (aged 33.8±7.72 years, the number of flying hours: 1194±941) flying different aircraft types, who attended the aviation medicine course, were surveyed and asked to report their episodes of SD. To collect anonymous data, a postal SD questionnaire (INFO PUB 61/117/5) was used. Results: In the overall incidence rate of SD (96%), the most commonly experienced SD illusion was "loss of horizon due to atmospheric conditions" (81%). More SD incidents were reported by pilots who had received SD training. Some differences in the categories of the most commonly experienced SD illusion episodes between aircraft types were found. A severe episode adversely affecting flight safety was categorized by 10% of the respondents. Conclusions: In Polish military aviation, episodes of SD are a significant threat to aviation safety. There is evidence for the beneficial effects of SD training in the improvement of pilots' ability to recognize those factors that lead to SD.

An Attentive Blank Stare Under Simulator-induced Spatial Disorientation Events

“…Among factors that strongly predispose to the incidence of SD, the degraded visual environment (induced by various weather conditions or low levels of illumination), in which the pilot cannot perceive a clear view of the natural horizon, is the most frequently mentioned (Lewkowicz & Biernacki, 2020). However, SD incidents arise mainly due to the pilot's perceptual errors caused by flight-related illusions.…”

“…SD induced by the illusion and recognized by the pilot results in sensory conflict, which may increase the pilot's cognitive load and negatively affect flight performance (Figure 2). On the other hand, when no illusion has occurred, an increase in the level of cognitive load e.g., due to task saturation may also predispose the pilot to SD (both recognized and unrecognized SD) (Lewkowicz & Biernacki, 2020), which may also result in reduced flight performance. It is worth emphasizing that in the case of unrecognized SD (Figure 2), when the pilot is unaware of the disorientation, increased cognitive load does not necessarily occur.…”

Waylosing and wayfinding in the outdoors: a typology of wayfinding approaches to problem-solving when temporarily lost

“…In our work with this paper, we have not been able to find extensive literature on this subject, and more specific literature concerned with people experiencing disorientation in the outdoors appears to be lacking. We have found literature concerning spatial disorientation, but it is linked to other research areas like the study of neurodegenerative disorders (for example Monacelli et al, 2003;Tu et al, 2015;Cammisuli and Crowe, 2018;Puthusseryppady et al, 2022), other transport contexts like aviation and pilot training (for example Benson, 1973;Pike, 1992;van Erp et al, 2006;Lewkowicz and Biernacki, 2020;Hao et al, 2022), experiments in simulation or controlled laboratory settings (for example Dariusz, 2018;Lewkowicz and Kowaleczko, 2019;Landman et al, 2022) or within specific activities or even animal navigation (for example Walsh and Martland, 1993;Matthews, 1997).…”

Reduction of the vertical vestibular-ocular reflex in military aircraft pilots exposed to tactical, high-performance flight

“…We hypothesized that a stronger adaptation of rVOR to the sensory conflicts induced by head motions in flight will be associated with tactical, high-performance flight. Specifically, considering that tactical, high-performance aircraft aviators report a significantly higher incidence of spatial disorientation, we speculated that an inhibited vestibular response will be observed (18)(19)(20).…”