Losing The Flick

The Flick,” the big picture, is how situational awareness often is described. As short descriptions go, it’s a good one. The big picture can mean different things to different people, of course, but it generally breaks down into knowing where you are, where you’re going, what it’s going to take to get there and whether the resources to complete the flight are available. The resources can be any number of things. In particular, they usually boil down to keeping tabs on fuel, weather and terrain. Lose the flick on either one of these three, and you could find yourself in these pages.

Key Takeaways:

• The accident, a Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT), resulted from the pilots' loss of situational awareness during a dark night flight over remote, rugged terrain.
• Key contributing factors included pilot fatigue from a long duty day, inadequate fuel planning that led to stretching range, and failure to ensure sufficient altitude for terrain clearance.
• The article underscores the critical importance of a pilot maintaining "the flick" – comprehensive situational awareness regarding fuel state, weather, terrain, and flight plan – to prevent such accidents.

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