Physilogical Factors in Aviation

NASA ASRS CALLBACK Issue 535

Promoted in the EASA Community to the benefit of safety.

ASRS CALLBACK Issue 536 - September 2024, What Would You Have Done? (nasa.gov)

The September 2024 Issue of NASA's CALLBACK again offers the reader a chance to “interact” with the information given in a selection of ASRS reports. In “The First Half of the Story,” you will find report excerpts describing an event or situation up to a point where a specific decision must be made, an immediate action must be taken, or a non-normal condition must be actively managed. You may then exercise your own judgment to make a decision, determine a possible course of action, or devise a plan that might best resolve the situation.

ASRS CALLBACK Issue 535 - August 2024, Physiological Factors in Aviation (nasa.gov)

In the August 2024 Issue of CALLBACK, NASA continues its informal survey of ASRS’s Human Factors (HFs) with a brief look at physiological incidents in aviation. “Aviation Physiology deals with the physical and mental effects of flight on air crew personnel and passengers.”

Effects can be subtle or overt, but are almost always detrimental. Well known effects include hypoxia, decompression sickness, and spatial disorientation, while some less recognized are self-imposed stress, sensitivity to noise, and physical fitness. 

Humanly speaking, physiological effects are produced by the body’s inability to fully adapt to hostile, unnatural environments that aviation can impose. Changes in barometric pressure, considerable variation in temperature, acceleration and high velocities in three dimensions, and rotation around three axes are key elements in generating physiological events.