Survival for Aircrew

Sarah-Jane Prew

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781351896689
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Mechanical Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Survival for Aircrew is essential reading for any aviation personnel who might at any time fly over water or inhospitable terrain. The ability to conquer nature and survive long enough to be rescued is a skill that could have saved the lives of countless aircrew and passengers in the past, and could save many lives in the future. Designed to be an easy-to-read instructional resource, this book teaches aircrews all the survival methods they are ever likely to need, in any eventuality. Illustrated throughout for ease of reference, this book looks at the aircrew role in an aviation survival situation, at the equipment required and at the possible scenarios. Its emphasis on crew behaviour makes the book unique, whether the reader is involved in general aviation, airline industry or government service. Features include: *

1  Survival – An Introduction

Survival is the art of staying alive and for the purposes of this book it is about staying alive in extreme climatic conditions. It is the ability to combine our technological knowledge and experience with the old natural skills that are so quickly being eroded away by our modern lifestyles. The right psychological attitude is essential and is man’s biggest survival asset; knowledge and prior training is the next most valuable tool.

Survival situations occurring from aircraft accidents happen suddenly and with relatively little warning. It is unlikely that anyone boarding that aircraft at the beginning of the journey would have given any thought to the possibility that they could end up in a life-threatening survival situation.

These events happen when people are least expecting them. They are on the aircraft for a reason; they have their trip planned out and their mind is on many things. When something then goes wrong and people are left struggling for their lives in the desert or in the oceans, it is such a complete shock that they do not know how to begin to cope.

Anyone who succeeds in this task will do so by making themselves a survivor. They will stay calm and think clearly. They will be positive and will see opportunity in everything. They will make the most of the equipment that they have and each item will suddenly assume a dozen uses. If they do not have equipment, they will not see themselves as unequipped, merely that they must turn to the natural resources around them, of which there are many. They will learn, very quickly, to improvise and will become instantly resourceful. They will appreciate that although their surroundings are trying to kill them, their surroundings are all they have that will keep them alive.

There will be many dangers threatening life in a survival situation. These will include the freezing cold, the searing heat, the relentless sun, the sea, wind, lack of water, animals and insects, hunger and injury. These are physical dangers whose presence the survivor will have no control over.

Aside from these, there will be many more dangers, most of which will be conjured up by those in the survival situation. These are the psychological dangers and can include panic, fear, fatigue, boredom, a feeling of isolation and a lack of will to live.

Psychological factors can make death a certainty. It is very important that these barriers are addressed and overcome, or not allowed to build up in the first place. This applies first and foremost to the crew but it also applies to the passengers. It is the crew’s job to do all they can to prevent panic from spreading and negative feeling from destroying the survival effort.

The recognition phase is the point at which the reality of the situation sets in. This is when the brain realises that something is wrong and, worse than this, sees all the implications of that situation. The greater the threat that the brain perceives, such as a life threatening situation as opposed to a non-life threatening situation, the greater the stress felt by the body. This stress can produce negative effects on our thinking patterns and actions. Certain people, especially those who do not have very good coping mechanisms, suffer particularly adverse reactions to stress.

The recognition phase is most likely to set in once the panic of the crash landing and evacuation is over. The relief that you have survived an air crash will quickly be overtaken by the more deep-rooted panic that you are in a hostile environment and not likely to be rescued in a hurry.

There are three recognised categories of survivors; the leaders, the followers and those who are negative about the whole event. The leaders form about 25% of the group. These are the natural leaders and the most unexpected people can come to the fore in such situations. While it is hoped that the crew of an aircraft will come into this category having, hopefully, been chosen for their role as leaders, this may not always be the case. It is important that crew do assert themselves as leaders, however, because they may be the only ones with the relevant knowledge to keep everyone alive.

The next category, the followers, represent about 50% of the population. These are the people who will obey and do everything that is required of them but they will wait until told to do so. They are not obstructive in any way and want to help but will not jump up and lead.

The third category, the final 25%, comprises those who are totally obstructive and who will damage the survival process if they can. They remain negative and refuse to believe that anything anyone tries to do will do them any good whatsoever.

The basic rule in survival is ‘help yourself first’. Do not sit back and rely on someone else – that person may never materialise. As crew, if you do not help yourself, no-one else will and your passengers will be relying on you to help them.

Your survival will depend upon a will to live. A real will to live will be stronger than any dangers trying to kill you. Fear, for example, can act in two ways. It can cause you to panic, making you an indecisive, gibbering wreck or it can sharpen your instincts and make you think all the clearer, forcing you towards helpful action.

As crewmembers, it is up to you to get yourselves and passengers through this. They are reliant on you for knowledge, guidance and support. Except in occasional circumstances, your passengers will know nothing other than what you tell them. It is up to you to help them save their own lives.

Do not hold post-mortems once the crash has occurred; these will do no good whatsoever. Instead, keep together, assess the situation and concentrate on surviving. You must be decisive, able to improvise and able to adapt to any situation. You must maintain hope, stay calm and you must have patience. You must be able to take hardship to its limits. Knowledge in the subject and awareness of the very worst that can happen to you helps you accept this hardship.

One of the best ways of looking at survival is to take the advice of those that have been through such situations. Steven Callahan, who spent 76 days alone in a life raft after his yacht sank, maintains that you must ‘see your predicament as nothing more than a continuation of your journey’.

This is important. If you feel hard done by, you will be less able to get down to work and do what must be done to keep people alive. Accept the situation and live with it. Use whatever you have and be thankful for it. Think for yourself and make the most of each tiny thing. It is important to realise the richness of your surroundings; even though hostile, there are so many things in the wilderness that you can use. The survival skill is to recognise this richness for what it is, not wish you had your latest technological gadget with you.

Steven Callahan backs this up. ‘Although the sea was my greatest enemy, it was also my greatest ally….the sea is indifferent but her richness allowed me to survive.’

Everything in survival is paradoxical. Every positive decision will have a negative side to it. It is just down to the individual to get on with it and make the most of everything. Ultimately, you have a choice – you either survive or you curl up and die.

Managing your own personality is the most crucial aspect. Know how you manage under stress. Know how much you can take and what effect it has on you. The rational self must take command over the pain, the fear, the thirst, the hunger and the will to give it all up. Through all these extremely strong negative feelings must come just one thing – the will to live and through this the energy to get up and carry on.

Do not underestimate the effects of the mind in a situation such as this. To use Steven Callahan as an example again, he found it increasingly difficult to kill the fish around him, his only source of food, because they were his only companions and had become his friends.

To use another example, one of five yachtsmen whose boat sank, was convinced after a couple of days that he could see land close to the raft. He was so sure about this that he dived into the shark infested sea and swam away from the raft. He was never seen again. His brain was playing particularly nasty tricks with him.

Yet another example can be seen by looking at a survivor of a Cessna that crashed in the Sierra Nevada mountains in 1976. A woman, trying to reach help by walking through the snow and ice, saw a row of houses. She saw people and even heard children laughing and shouting. There was nothing there, in reality, but snow capped mountains and rocks. When she realised that the view was nothing but a figment of her imagination, her morale was severely affected. She had also wasted a lot of energy in trying to reach what was never there.

Because the psychological dangers are so powerful and threatening, it is important first to recognise them and secondly to control them, both in yourself and then in others. Keeping everyone busy is the key to this. If people are doing something, it keeps them active and keeps their mind from the worst. They may also feel that they are helping themselves and others to survive. A feeling of responsibility for the success of their plight can go a long way to increasing the will to live.

Have a roster and make sure people stick to the tasks on it. Do not have people working all the time; they need to be able to rest, especially as they will be tired, possibly injured, thirsty and hungry. If they have periods of activity and responsibility between rest, however, it will do them a great deal of good. It will also get the essential work done.

There are certain times when it is impractical to work; for example during the day in the desert. At these times, keep people’s minds occupied when they are not asleep. You cannot afford for them to begin thinking too much about their plight. Positive thought may quickly turn to negative and this can be very damaging to all involved. Panic will spread like wild fire so do not let it build up in the first place.

There is one basic survival rule to follow: the priorities of survival, PROTECTION, LOCATION, WATER and FOOD. These terms are self explanatory, save for location. In survival terms, location means attracting attention and being rescued. Food can be disregarded in all but extreme cases. People can survive a long time without food and it is a commodity that can take a lot of energy to acquire, and a lot of water to digest. Unless you have enough water to give everyone about five litres a day, forget food.

The priorities will depend on the individual circumstances. The basic aim is to get rescued and remain alive to be rescued. This means that there are two priorities that should be working in conjunction: protection will ensure that everyone is protected from the immediate dangers, for example, the sea, wind, freezing cold or sun, allowing them to survive, while location will ensure a constant look-out for rescue.

Injuries may be a significant factor but it is no good worrying about these, however life-threatening, if exposure or drowning kill you first. Water is also a priority, but will not kill as quickly as climatic dangers so prioritise according to the threat to life.

There are a few other basic survival rules to follow. At sea, never allow people to drink sea water; it will kill quicker than thirst. NEVER give anyone alcohol, especially in cold conditions. Although it may appear to warm the body, all it is actually doing is dilating the blood vessels which causes the blood to flow around the body faster. You feel warm because the warm blood that was protecting the vital organs in the very cold body core, is now at the surface, where you can feel it in your extremities. The cold blood it has replaced is now close to the vital organs and the shock of this will kill. Alcohol is also dehydrating.

In summary, to survive, keep positive and never give up.

2 The Crew Role – Leadership in Survival

With the exception of the airline Captain and possibly the senior cabin crewmember, the crew of an aircraft will rarely have had any training in leadership. In a survival situation, however, the need for leadership and management skills will come to the fore, especially if the incident is prolonged.

So what is leadership and management? According to one famous military commander, Field Marshall Montgomery, leadership is, ‘the will to dominate, together with the character which inspires confidence’. Management on the other hand, at least according to M. Gilbert Frost, ‘is the art of directing human activities’.

Consider the leadership and management roles of the crew in the environment posed following an aircraft accident when help is not immediately at hand. Remember the old adage that, To Fail to Prepare, is to Prepare to Fail.

Imagine the crew’s role in a survival situation. After the difficulties and stresses of an emergency landing and passenger evacuation, at the point where there would normally be someone else, such as the police or airport staff, to take over, your role in the survival situation is just beginning. Passengers, and indeed junior crew members, will be looking to the more senior crew members for help, support and leadership. This, despite the crews’ own problems, possible injuries and emotional turmoil.

Success in survival depends on, among other things, knowledge and ability, the psychological condition of the individuals and on the management of the survival effort. All these factors are dependant on the crew and on their ability to manage and lead.

Consider the survival situation. Chaos will reign. There will be injuries to deal with, shelter to find, water to acquire, fires to build and try to light, rescue attempts to look out for and attract. People will be in pain, in shock, panicking and confused. As well as managing this chaotic situation and setting priorities, the crew member must utilise resources to prevent further injury and turn chaos into order.

The role of the leader in these situations is multi-faceted. The leader will make the decisions about what has to be done and will prioritise tasks. They will control the survival effort. They will be required to maximise the resources available, to determine improvisations and to maintain the safety and efficiency of the group. Perhaps most importantly, they will be required to build and maintain morale.

Morale is certainly the key to survival. It is a state of mind. It is an intangible force that will move a whole group of people to give their last grain of strength to achieve something without counting the cost to themselves. The leader’s role is to build and sustain morale and then direct it to the common goal of survival and well being for the group.

The maintenance of good morale in the survival group demands that the following are achieved:

* Leadership.

* Discipline.

* Comradeship.

* Self-Respect.

* Devotion to a Cause (ie Surviving).

It is the crew’s role to take care of the passengers. They will be totally reliant on you for guidance. Except in very rare circumstances, you will be the only people in the party who have enough knowledge to be able to sustain the survival effort successfully. The onus is, fairly and squarely, on your shoulders. This responsibility is a moral one which, unfortunately, airlines do not formally address. The number of airlines that undertake formal leadership training is minimal.

In a survival situation, it is imperative that your leadership skills, and your knowledge of survival skills, show through. Crew must be able to control a very difficult situation and the people involved within that situation. They must be able to think clearly and organise all the tasks to be done, in order of priority. They must be able to delegate and impart requirements clearly. Crew must be able to instil confidence, respect and authority in the whole group.

Even more important than the relationship between crewmember and passenger in these situations is the ability for the crew to work together. The most senior crewmember should take ultimate command and should delegate down among the crew, taking into account individual strengths and weaknesses. The crew must be able to bond closely together and work as a team. Each crewmember, however, has a responsibility to the passengers.

In considering the use of all available resources, the crew must not forget the passengers. The chances are that on a long-haul flight for example, some of the passengers might be military or ex-military personnel that might have a p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Survival – An Introduction
• 2 The Crew Role – Leadership in Survival
• Sea Survival
• Land Survival
• Sources for Equipment and Training
• Bibliography
• Index