COVID-19 Lessons

Elim Hawkins

Friday, July 24, 2020 at 09:35 AM ET

Verified

Key Takeaways:

The COVID-19 pandemic severely reduced ATC staffing and services, leading to increased individual controller workload, especially as general aviation flying resumed faster than controller capacity.
A shift in pilot demographics during the pandemic resulted in a noticeable degradation of overall pilot skills, including radio communication, airspace awareness, and compliance with critical readback instructions.
The article emphasizes the perishable nature of aviation safety culture, stressing that a full return to pre-pandemic efficiency and safety requires both controllers and pilots to address potential skill rust and adapt to evolving operational realities.

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The first thing that happened was a sudden shift in “safety” concerns over to handling COVID- 19. Should I go fly? Wear a mask? But, where we began and where we’re headed now are two very different paradigms. The aviation safety culture we’ve built over decades is somewhat perishable—it’s not just like “riding a bike”—and it’s dynamic in that some things have to change and adapt to new realities for the overall safety focus to remain viable.

Initial Impact

Back in the January/February time frame, the NAS was hopping. Airlines to flight training were all moving with a purpose in an often near-full system. Then COVID-19 nearly shut it all down.