Dr. Tony Kern, CEO of Convergent Performance, in a recent presentation called The Zoology of Safety correlated how humans think about safety compared to members of the animal kingdom. “There are many lessons we can learn from nature,” Kern began. “Awareness plus adaptation equals survival.”

Kern believes that two decades of social engineering focused on making people believe they are as good at everything as everyone else has led to a climate in which no one really expects anyone’s best efforts in a particular area any longer. He thinks an attitude like that in aviation can get people killed. “Look at our pilot check-ride system,” he said. “Almost no one fails a check ride anymore. Is it because everyone has become such a great pilot?”

He claimed this attitude is the result of social conditioning. “Nature doesn’t do that. It grabs you by the neck until you’re dead,” said Kern, arguing that pilots need to focus on what he calls a deep awareness of the flying environment, involving first self-awareness and then situational awareness. “I don’t know what the Asiana guys were thinking about as they approached San Francisco,” he said. “But I can tell you they [the flight crew of Asiana Airlines Flight 214] weren’t focusing on altitude and airspeed.” From Kern’s perspective, deep awareness asks questions such as, “What am I thinking about right now?” and “What should I be thinking about right now?” and “Why am I not thinking about what I should be right now?”

Kern presented his case at October’s Bombardier Safety Standddown in Wichita.