No momento em que a melhor decisão não faz parte das regras, pergunta-se: como a segurança na aviação é construída a partir da experiência do piloto?

Abstract

Fajer M. [When the best decision is not part of the regulations we ask: how flight safety is built from the pilot's experience?] [Thesis] São Paulo: Faculdade de Saúde Pública da Universidade de São Paulo; 2022.Portuguese Introduction: Flying an aircraft is an activity that requires a set of specialized skills. There are many standardized procedures, but it is also necessary to make judgments in the presence of uncertainties, considering the risks and making decisions quickly and prudently. The activity of an airline pilot develops in a complex system, with multiple interactions, therefore, he/she needs to be able to recognize interaction patterns and know what to do in unpredictable situations. Faced with unpredictability, it is important to understand the resources and strategies used to deal with events. Objective: This thesis aims to analyze what are the determining factors of successful decision-making by airline pilots in non-prescribed work situations, considering the decision model used and the cognitive aspects involved. Methods: Airline pilots who experienced a critical event during the activity, where there were no procedures or agreed rules, were studied. To understand the strategies, 10 airline pilots were interviewed, the semistructured interviews followed the Cognitive Task Analysis methodology. Later the information from 12 reported events were analyzed and classified using the Schema World Action Research Method (SWARM) taxonomy. The methodology adopted for the decision analysis used in the research serves to expand the ability to organize knowledge strategies of the airline pilots, making them able to evaluate and respond to non-prescribed situations during the flight in a faster and safer way. Results: We observed that there is time pressure on decisions, in scenarios where interactions are complex. In these cases, the consequences of the decisions can be serious for the decision maker. Those are taken on the basis of experience and naturalistic decision processes. Conventional training processes were recognized as factors that contributed to decisions in critical events. Understanding the processes involved in the naturalistic decision can enrich the learning possibilities and improve the safety of the air operations. Conclusion:The study made it possible to verify that the understanding of naturalistic decision processes in scenarios not formal prescribed by the rules is a predictive factor for flight safety.