In Defense of Traditional Views of Spatial Disorientation and Loss of SituationAwareness: A Reply to Navathe and Singh's 'An Operational Definition of Spatial Disorientation'

摘要

The lack of standardized definitions of Spatial Disorientation (SD) and Loss ofSituation Awareness (LSA) and the confusion currently existing in mishap categorization have created a void that Navathe and Singh have tried to fill with their novel approach. Although their emphasis on physiological and psychological mechanisms has some merit, we believe that their recommendations are flawed in several major respects and may cause even further confusion to researchers, flight surgeons, and pilots alike. Specifically, their recommendation to classify a mishap as due to SD or LSA on the basis of the presumed brain mechanisms involved in generating the disorientation will pose great difficulties for flight surgeons, and the segregation of SD and LSA runs counter to current efforts to better understand the strong linkages between these two phenomena. By contrast, we prefer more traditional, straightforward SD definitions in which an erroneous sense of critical flight parameters (e.g., attitude, altitude, airspeed) is used as the basis for stipulating SD. At the same time, however, we recognize that these definitions are not sufficient by themselves to understand SD and that elucidation of specific SD causal mechanisms should be a priority of flight surgeons, researchers, and other aeromedical personnel.