[Off-Topic] Intervene or Not? The "Catch-22" of Co-Pilots

July 18, 2009 · 💬 Join the Discussion

Update 07/20: By coincidence, this month’s Você S/A magazine published the article How to Deal with Toxic Bosses which is entirely related to this post.

Look at this list of fatal civil aviation accidents:

  1. Jetstream into Hibbing, MN, (NTSB, 1994a);
  2. DC-8 into Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (NTSB, 1993a);
  3. C99 into Anniston, AL, (NTSB, 1993b);
  4. Beechjet into Rome, GA, (NTSB, 1992a);
  5. DC-8 loss of control at Toledo, OH, (NTSB, 1992b);
  6. 707 fuel exhaustion into JFK, Washington DC, (NTSB, 1991);
  7. L-1011 windshear accident, D/FW Airport, TX, (NTSB, 1986);
  8. MS-748 electrical failure in Pinckneyville, IL (NTSB, 1985);
  9. 737 out of Washington National, Washington DC, (NTSB, 1982);
  10. DC-8 fuel exhaustion in Portland, OR, (NTSB, 1979);
  11. 727 into Dulles New York City, NY, (NTSB, 1975);
  12. DC-8 freighter into Cold Bay, AK, (NTSB, 1974);
  13. Convair into New Haven, CT, (NTSB, 1972);
  14. L-188 into a thunderstorm at Dawson, TX, (NTSB, 1969);
  15. Lear Jet out of Palm Springs, CA, (NTSB, 1967);
  16. F-27 into Las Vegas, NV, (CAB, 1965).

Each of these accidents is an example of subordinates who knew the Captain was ignoring serious risks and demonstrating counterproductive and unreasonable behavior. These subordinates all knew that their respective captains were either denying, discounting, or ignorant of the lethal dangers. Unfortunately, none of them were able to do anything to change the Captain’s performance, actions, or strategies; most couldn’t even get the Captain to notice the problem.

Maybe that doesn’t make sense, so let’s put it in perspective. In the aviation world, hierarchy is quite rigid — the Pilot/Captain is the ultimate authority, and co-pilots and the rest of the crew must never disagree with them. That’s the “Catch-22” of Co-Pilots. By definition, Catch-22 means a “dilemma”:

  • You’re screwed if you ignore the Captain’s mistakes!
  • You’re screwed if you do or say anything about them!

The corollary is an unwritten rule that everyone knows:

  1. The Captain is always right.
  2. IF the Captain is ever observed making a mistake, see Rule 1.

As in any organization, this type of hierarchy always leads to a code of ethics that’s written nowhere but every co-pilot knows very well. In this case, like the Green Eagle Code of Ethics:

  • Don’t sleep while your Captain is sleeping
  • Encourage your Captain to smoke
  • It’s hell to fly with a nervous Captain, especially if it’s you who’s making him nervous!
  • Don’t interfere if your Captain absolutely insists on making a fool of himself.

Survival Rules:

  • Don’t fly with a Captain nicknamed “Lucky”;
  • Don’t fly at night;
  • Don’t fly in bad weather;
  • Don’t mess with the red buttons;
  • Never, ever eat airplane food in the dark;
  • Keep your noisy attitude a secret;
  • Speak very, very softly when speaking to your Captain;
  • Don’t make better landings than your Captain until the last flight of the month.

With all that said, I’m not joking — analyses of the black boxes from aircraft accidents over the past decades have shown that Captains sometimes under stress, tired, irritated, or whatever the case, end up ignoring dangerous situations. Co-pilots, knowing the situation, had no idea how to raise the issue — afraid of retaliation if they turned out to be wrong, for example. For some reason, not even the worst case — literally falling to their death — managed to break the hierarchical barrier.

Because of this, researchers like Dr. Robert O. Besco arrived at procedural models specifically for this Cockpit Resource Management (CRM), or aircraft crew management. One of them was P.A.C.E.

  • (P)robing
  • (A)lerting
  • (C)hallenging
  • (E)mergency Warning

PROBING

“Captain, I need to understand why we’re flying this way.”

This is the phase where the co-pilot, glimpsing a potentially dangerous situation, needs to make sure the pilot knows what they’re doing — sometimes it’s a calculated maneuver the pilot has full control over, so it doesn’t hurt to check. The clearest translation of this would be:

“Captain, you aren’t by any chance painting yourself into a corner and aiming to shoot yourself in the foot, are you?”

ALERTING

“Captain, it seems to me that we’re on a course that is drastically reducing our safety margins.”

If the Captain failed to provide a satisfactory response during PROBING, it’s now time to alert them to the imminent dangers. More directly:

“Captain, it is my function and responsibility to protect your blind spots. I see that you are almost falling into the abyss.”

CHALLENGING

“Captain, you are placing the passengers and the aircraft in immediate and irreversible danger. You must immediately choose a course of action that will reduce our unacceptably high risk levels.”

You’ve already tried to understand, you’ve already tried to warn — now it’s time to challenge and confront them with reality. In this penultimate step, the co-pilot must still give the captain a chance to come to their senses and do the right thing.

“Captain, you are about to self-destruct. You literally have a gun pointed at your 6 o’clock. We are about to receive the aviation equivalent of a 20mm enema.”

EMERGENCY WARNING

“Captain, if you do not immediately increase our safety margins, it is my duty and responsibility to take control of the aircraft immediately.”

We’re now at the point where the captain has completely ignored reality, or is completely incapacitated from making any decision. These are the last 30 seconds before the point of no return. In plain terms:

“Captain, we are about to become dead meat. I choose not to join you. If you don’t release the controls right now, I am going to take this aircraft from you.”

PACE Survival Step: INTERVENTION AND TAKING CONTROL

Co-pilot: “Captain, I must take over control of the airplane!!”

If nothing happens in the next second, it’s time to drop formalities and address them by first name or nickname.

Co-pilot: “Jerry, take your hands off the controls, NOW!!” (shout, slow, with firm authority!)

A third crew member, if present, can use terminology such as:

Co-pilot 2: “Captain, you must give control of the airplane to Barry immediately!”

When the co-pilot is already flying the aircraft, the intervention steps of PACE must be used by the co-pilot to announce the intention to implement a strategy not initiated by the Captain. Although the co-pilot has control of the aircraft, the Captain still bears command responsibility for the basic flight plan and mission control. These same four progressive steps for an intervention strategy must be followed by the co-pilot in flight to formalize the change of command and return the aircraft to the previously planned safety margins.

Conclusion

Replace “Captain” with “Manager” and “Co-Pilot” with “member of a project team” and you’ll immediately understand where I’m going with this.

The archaic hierarchical systems still in use today assume that so-called “Managers” are omnipotent, omnipresent, and have absolute power. Management, HR, etc. have the illusion that managers know each team member, know exactly how they’re developing, how they behave, what they want. The team, on the other hand, has the illusion that the manager knows what needs to be done and what the most important things are. And the manager genuinely ends up believing they have the ability to lead their team, to deliver the results demanded by the board, and that everyone trusts them.

Or worse: the manager is exactly the coercive type, using fear, intimidation, and literal authoritarianism to give and take orders. “You work for me, shut up and do what I’m telling you!” No one usually says it quite so explicitly, but that’s what happens — especially behind closed doors. Is your manager like this? Get ready: your plane is about to crash.

I’d say 99% of managers today are the flight captains who will fly the plane straight to the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle. The first people who need to prevent this is the Team!

Yes, you — comfortable, conformist member of a product or project team! You’re the co-pilot in this story. When the project/product fails, don’t just think it’s the manager’s fault — the fault is yours too! And if this were a plane you’d be equally dead, a goner. So do your part.

The four PACE steps are ideal for any team to adopt. This is not about chaos or insubordination. You need to pay attention early enough to have time to apply all four steps:

  • (P) When you notice something strange unfolding, ask for clarification
  • (A) If the explanation isn’t convincing, try to warn of the risks you already see
  • (C) If no action is taken, demand that something be done
  • (E) If nothing is done, it’s time to warn that you’ll take control!

The good news is that in projects and products — especially in our field of software — there’s no imminent risk of death, literally speaking. But think of every failed project as a piece of you that is dying. A professional with only failures in their career is, by definition, a failure.

One last thing: do you happen to work in HR? Think of what I just said as a training course for all new hires. A protocol that gives subordinates an “official” path for how to act to avoid the premature death of their own career. The problem is that today the only path that exists is authority flowing top-down. Most subordinates are afraid of retaliation from their managers — it’s long past time to provide a bottom-up safety valve that the manager is aware exists.