What Law Enforcement Officers Have In Common with Airline Pilots

Rules, Stress, and Psychology

Have you ever been threatened with lethal force?

If you have a background in law enforcement, the answer is almost certainly yes. At some point you’ve confronted a situation that you knew could result in your death. It’s likely that this situation happened in an instant, and in that instant your focus was completely trained on the source of that threat. Your world probably became quiet, your vision tunneled, your muscles moved fast but in a bit too much, like they had a mind of their own.

You may have perceived time slow down as your limbic system flooded your arties with potent chemicals. Your brain likely all but shut down higher cognitive functions - language, reasoning, forethought about the consequences of what you were doing - in an all-hands-on-deck effort to ensure one thing: your survival.

If you’re reading this, it worked.

These are the physical processes that allow us to survive a mortal threat. They give us the speed, focus, and toughness we need to come out of a life threatening situation alive. Unfortunately, they can also be tricked, gripping us when a complete cognitive shutdown is the last thing we need.

In the mid 1980s, airlines had a problem. Jet aircraft had gotten about as safe and reliable as they possibly could, but they were still crashing at an alarming rate. Imagine a major air disaster in the US every three to six months. That was the reality, and again and again the cause was the same: pilot error.

These weren’t ‘bad apples.’ They were highly experienced pilots with excellent training records. They knew how to avoid making serious mistakes, and yet time after time they did.