Many people today believe that pilot work is very simple or simply a profession in which people live differently because they spend every week in different places, but in reality, being a pilot also involves being under constant stress.
The crew of an aircraft from long before boarding can present stress, this is due to many of the situations that can arise long before getting to step on the aircraft, many of them can be due to factors that are alien to them, but equally, they must solve so that the whole flight is done without any problem and the passenger gets a great flight.
Here we will name some aspects that affect the crews, which will make you understand many things that can affect all the people who are part of the crew of a flight.
Contents
Stress by degree of responsibility in the aircraft
Firstly the Captain is the primary one to suffer from this type of stress, this is because he has the responsibility for all the people that are inside the aircraft, besides the security and actions that can happen in it, then the First Officer has his own functions during the preparation of the cabin. The cabin crew members each have their own duties and from long before boarding they must arrange everything so that the passenger has everything perfect when boarding; thus making the flight perfect for everyone who has paid for the flight.
Quick decision-making
Although the flight should always be the same, external conditions can vary, from weather conditions, boarding of passengers and luggage and finally one of the most critical which is abnormal emergency situations, such as aircraft failures, where although these are practised by the crew every 6 months in simulators, during the flight they must identify and make decisions quickly and timely to minimize the risks or damage, which makes this one of the biggest generators of stress during the flight.
Problems with maintaining schedules
Whether it is commercial or private airplane crews, each one has specific schedules to make the flight; if the flight is commercial, each one of these must take off at a specific time, so all the work of the pilots must lead to maintain the schedules either of departure or arrival because sanctions can occur, and for the private ones it can happen that they are called by the emergency or the passengers are delayed and must wait for much more time to the passenger, which leads to generating a lot of stress long before the flight.
Finally, we also have the stress of complex situations
Depending on the type of flight, more or less stressful situations can be generated. This is because if the flight is a search and rescue, ambulance, fire extinguishing or fishing vessel flight, each one will generate, due to its complexity, great degrees of stress that can affect the crew.
What do you think about this issue? Do you think flight crew members are stressed or are they quiet jobs?
If you have any doubt or question you can contact us or write your query in the comments section below.
Image of Barbara Luef via Flickr.com under creative commons license.
