Startle Effect Management

EASA_REP_RESEA_2015_3

Startle and surprise effects can influence pilot performance in many detrimental ways: from mere distraction to inappropriate actions or hasty decision making. Well-learned procedures and skills can be discarded and substituted by inappropriate reactions, including freezing or over-reacting at the controls.

The research focused on startle and surprise reactions that are large enough to impact performance and endanger safety.
Startle and surprise played a substantial role in a significant number of Loss‐of‐Control In‐flight events (LOC-I) as well as in other types of
accidents. 

The research aimed to produce a set of comprehensive and practical guidance materials in order to support the development of training programmes for Commercial-Air-Transport (CAT) pilots, to establish a quantitative framework to measure the impact of such reaction and the recovery process during training sessions (e.g. reaction time, recovery of situational awareness) as well as to measure the effectiveness of the proposed training scheme.