Science / Medicine : ‘Wrong Stuff’ Pilots Hurt Crew Capability

They call them the captains with the “wrong stuff.”

Arrogant and dictatorial, lacking interpersonal skills, they chill communications with their crew so much that junior officers are afraid to speak up--even when their plane is in jeopardy.

The result, said psychologist Robert Helmreich of the University of Texas, is a “flight crew that performs badly and extremely poorly in a crisis.”

In a series of studies of 19 commercial airline crews working in flight simulators at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif., Helmreich and Dr. Clayton Foushee and Dr. Thomas Chidester of NASA have found that the personality of the captain greatly influences how a crew works together.

Crews in the study “flew” a total of six flights together during a two-day test period--the same way that they work on the job. During two legs of their flight, however, the crew experienced mechanical malfunctions, such as hydraulic problems or difficulties with the wing flaps. As they were trying to cope with the mechanical trouble, the crew then had to fly through bad weather and was forced to divert to another airport.

The study found that captains with the “right stuff”--those who have a lot of interpersonal skills and sensitivity--fostered crews that work together and were more likely to perform well during a crisis. These captains were highly motivated to achieve, Helmreich said, “but they were very sensitive to the crew and know how to use their crew very effectively to get the job done.”

The study found that there is another type of captain, one the researchers characterize as having “no stuff.” “This captain is very low on achievement and very lacking in interpersonal skills,” Helmreich said. Crews led by this type of captain “performed uniformly badly,” he said, in a series of flight simulations.

One finding that surprised researchers: Given enough time, crews working with “wrong stuff” captains became better at dealing with his personality and seemed to learn how to cope with the situation, Helmreich said.