Beyond the Sterile Cockpit

The rapid advance of cockpit automation, enabled by microprocessor technology and motivated by the quest for safer and more efficient flight, has both its supporters and its detractors. Even the supporters tend to view the march toward computer-directed flight as a mixed blessing. Certain dramatic accidents and incidents in recent years, as well as the destruction of Korean Airlines Flight 007, have been interpreted by many as automation induced. Many of the critics outside of the aviation community, journalists, and the general public, have harped on the negative side of flight-deck automation without recognizing its positive aspects. The author advances the view that the time-honored recommendation that humans should serve as monitors of automatic devices must be reconsidered, and that the human must be brought back into a more active role in the control loop, aided by decision support systems.