Safety Doesn‘t Matter, At Least Not Much

These attitudes are known today by human factors specialists as "macho" and "invulnerability." A third concept, a pretty disturbing notion, was companion with the other two, at least in the minds of the most extreme expression of those attitudes. That idea was that if someone came to harm in an airplane, it was because they weren't good enough pilots, so too bad and all, but it's really their own fault, now, isn't it? Not only is this attitude inhumane, but it begs the question that if most accidents were caused by pilot error, those errors were exactly the same kinds of things macho pilots think that they don't need to learn about or even to consider when they go flying. And as is always the case, a strong sense of invulnerability never saved anyone's life. Quite the opposite. 

Ignorance of risk factors is one thing, but ignoring good advice is quite another. The good news is that we have come a long way since these attitudes were in vogue, when "real" pilots didn't use autopilots and scud running stories were the opposite of cautionary tales. Today, it's widely (though not universally) accepted that the most impressive pilots are those who know that stick and rudder skills matter and work hard to maintain that proficiency while also being aware that they are hardly immune to the kinds of mishaps caused by having an overinflated sense of self and an underinflated sense of and attention to known risk factors.