By Marianela Cartagena*

  • The additional experience that flight crews (command and cabin) have is due to the fact that this is a job that entails very different experiences than those of people who work on the ground. We carry out the work at 33,000 feet above sea level.

Experience is essential for all living beings. Experience is that interaction with “reality” that leaves a trace, which can be activated at some point through memory.

In human beings (complex systems), the perception of the environment is coloured by previous experiences, stored in a brain mass of multiple neural networks, and what is memorized is influenced by this way of perceiving. Experiences and the memory of these experiences become increasingly complex, reaching a very peculiar, surprising, and wonderful character that we call self-awareness.

Then two aspects are relevant here:

  • Self-awareness: Human beings, unlike what parents, caregivers, and/or the community teach us, are not taught psychomotor skills; these are genetically hardwired. What we are taught is the when, how, and where of behavior—that is, the context in which it is appropriate to implement it.
  • Reflection: The additional experience that flight crew members (pilots and cabin crew) possess stems from the fact that this is a job that entails experiences very different from those of people who work on the ground. We perform our work at 33,000 feet. The end of the workday is also different, as the crew member does not find themselves on a familiar street or avenue used every day to return home, but rather in a city, country, or continent different from their own, with a culture, language, and customs distinct from the environment from which they began their flight that day. In other words, there is a change of context.

Human beings are born with a level of plasticity such that we are like molten iron poured into a mould. Reality shapes us in diverse ways, leading us to acquire a specific profile, a particular identity. The more experience we have, the more varied our memories will be and the more complex our perception of reality. Human beings, in general, have little tolerance for frustration and uncertainty; therefore, we simplify reality to understand it through familiar models. In the selection of flight crew members, special attention is paid to this point. Individuals with a greater tolerance for frustration and uncertainty are chosen. People who have better emotional intelligence, both their own and that of others, are selected, due to the different behaviors that human beings may exhibit under pressure or in emergencies.

Only in the 19th century did psychology emerge, and with it, the concept of a mind that develops by resolving primitive tendencies. This led to an awareness of the fundamental role that emotions play in the psyche, as well as the recognition that rational thought is incomplete.

Thus, we arrive at the 20th century, with a prevailing tendency to assert that the privileged instrument for grasping complex realities is experience. That is, reality is understood by experimenting with it, interacting with it, and acting upon it, not through speculation, rationalization, or theorizing.

In the training that flight and cabin crews undergo, we can see the truth of what Ricardo Capponi states in his book Solid Happiness: “The mind needs to build a model to understand reality, but it must be a model only for thinking, not for imposing it on reality.”

Since in-flight emergencies depend on the type of aircraft, the flight path, and the type of instrument failure, the effective use of a model during an emergency involves comparing what has been learned with the reality being experienced and verifying the results or modifying the model to make adjustments instantly.

When we behave rigidly and try to apply theoretical models, even though reality gives us signals of their inconsistency, errors, and contradictions, we fall into theoretical thinking. That is, we provide a single, quick answer that seems to explain the phenomenon, even if it doesn’t correspond to reality. This leads to errors that, in flight, are far more serious and damaging than on the ground.

When our minds construct a particular worldview, we tend to consider only the cases that confirm it. This breadth of mind comes only from lived experience and acquired knowledge.

Lebanese-American psychologist Nassim Taleb argues that there is another way of knowing reality: practical knowledge, which is more complex, intuitive, and experience-based. We are prone to thinking that skills and ideas come from books and reasoning, when in reality, theory arises from practice. In short, we create theories from practice, not the other way around.

Ultimately, an expert processes everything that happens to them in their experiences with situations or objects within their area of ​​expertise, and it is this process that transforms us into experts.

1 Capponi R., “Solid Happiness”, Editorial Zig Zag, Chile (2019).

(*) Marianela Cartagena has a BA in Psychology from the Diego Portales University of Santiago de Chile and currently works as Executive Director of MCMSilva Consultants. She previously had a long career in commercial aviation in her country of origin. She can be contacted at mcartagena@mcmsilva.cl