Facing the Unexpected in Flight ─ Human Limitations and Interaction With Technology in the Cockpit

This book searches for the causes of apparently incorrect pilot actions within the context of some aircraft incidents and accidents. To do so, it elaborates and applies an original operational psychological analysis method. This is the first time this high performance analysis method has been used in order to highlight actual operational behavior within a quick succession of short elementary conscious mental segments lasting less than one minute in all. The aim is to reveal common but overlooked mental limitations.

Dr. Jean Pinet’s basic training was in engineering. He joined the Centre d’Essais en Vol (French flight test center) where he became flight test engineer in 1957 and experimental flight test pilot in 1958. In 1965, he joined the Concorde flight test team at Sud Aviation until the Aerospatiale Concorde program came to an end in 1985. He was responsible for testing the flight-handling qualities of the aircraft and for customer crew training.

In 1972, he founded the Aeroformation training center (today Airbus Training), which he directed until his retirement in 1994. He designed and set in place the Concorde and Airbus A300 to A340 training systems. He participated in training activities as a pilot instructor, still carrying out test flights as a test pilot. Concerned by the problems of the crews’ operational behavior, Dr. Pinet co-founded the Icarus Committee of the Flight Safety Foundation and the European Institute of Cognitive Engineering EURISCO.

He successfully completed a PhD in psychology-ergonomics in 2011. He is a member of the Air and Space Academy (AAE), of which he was president in 1989 and secretary general from 1992 to 2004.