Pressure Points

Over a period of about six years he accrued the hours, experience and the competence needed to progress from his role as a first officer (or co-pilot) to complete command upgrade training on the Airbus A321.

With more than 3,000 total hours of flight experience, the now Captain Yusupov was still highly motivated and enjoying the responsibility of delivering passengers safely to their destinations. As aircraft Captain this included the added role of managing and leading his flightcrew (typically a co-pilot and a few flight attendants), all necessary to maximise safety and passenger comfort/service.

Captain Yusupov was considered astute by his peers with a meticulous attention to detail, including a focus on getting the most out of his simulator training – necessary to practice more challenging flight scenarios to ensure he could react appropriately should they ever occur for real.

Captain Yusupov was considered astute by his peers with a meticulous attention to detail

Just another day in the aircrew office

On this fair-weather day, with a forecast top temperature of 24 degrees, Captain Yusupov’s co-pilot was 23-year-old Georgy Murzin. Murzin had graduated initial flight training in 2017 and had accrued more than 600 hours of total flight experience. He was also highly motivated and enjoying the lessons learned as he continued to gain more flight experience.

It is well known to professional aviators that anyone who stops learning and starts to take the aviation workplace for granted, allowing complacency, monotony and boredom to insidiously creep into and disrupt their normal routines, is not going to be the best they can. Such traits regularly contribute to degraded habit patterns, outcomes that can lead once highly competent aircrew to no longer remain cool under pressure, a trait necessary in those rare occurrences when responding to a critical aircraft emergency.

Both Yusupov and Murzin were looking forward to their next flight, a morning departure on August 15, 2019. Ural Airlines Flight 178 from Zhukovsky Airfield (36 km south-east of central Moscow) to Simferopol International Airport, Crimea, with an approximate flight time of 90 minutes.

Little did they know upon meeting that morning that all of their training was about to be tested

This was a typical sector, and enjoyable – time to utilise the aircraft autopilot/automation while also allowing adequate time between the busier takeoff, climb and descent/landing phases of flight. In between monitoring aircraft systems and making radio calls there would be opportunity to enjoy some breakfast or a snack, a cup of coffee and to marvel at the ever-changing landscape from the office of aircrew, the cockpit of a highly advanced commercial jet.

Both pilots were impressed with the performance of the A321, particularly when compared with the smaller single engine training aircraft they had initially learnt to fly.

Little did they know upon meeting that morning that all of their training was about to be tested under the most extreme pressure, taking them to the edge of their own human performance envelope and requiring near perfection to save the lives of their 226 passengers and five cabin crew.

The routine becomes the extreme

With all the baggage, cargo and passengers loaded and the cabin crew securely seated, the aircraft was lined up on the runway and ready for takeoff.

With a takeoff clearance provided, Captain Yusupova advanced the throttles, allowing the large engines to spool up and accelerate the aircraft down the runway.

For Yusupov and Murzin there was quite a lot going on in the cockpit which for both had become an over-learned routine, one of habit,that allows them even under stressful and time-critical situations to complete various checks from memory.

Typical checks on takeoff for an A321 on this morning may have included the following:

Captain Yusupov (pilot flying): Using his right hand to smoothly advance the engine throttles, while simultaneously releasing the aircraft brakes (foot pedals), setting the thrust levers to a specified position and carefully manipulating the small sidestick with his left hand to move various aircraft flight control systems, which ensured the aircraft accelerated smoothly down the centre of the runway. The sidestick controller is an aircraft control column (or joystick) that is located on the side console of the pilot.

Georgy Murzin (pilot monitoring): He has checked and called various settings on the Flight Mode Annunciator, which showed the status of various systems considered important for takeoff and climb.

Georgy Murzin: As the aircraft reached 80kts airspeed, checked other critical settings including making a verbal call “thrust set” to the pilot flying. As the airspeed continued to accelerate he calls “100kts”.

Captain Yusupov: Called “check”, which is a check to ensure the airspeed indicator on the pilot flying display is accurate and indicating the same (100kts) as that on the pilot monitoring display. If not accurate, there is still a very short amount of time the pilots can use to abort (stop) the takeoff and to stay on the ground.

Georgy Murzin: Called “V1” and then “rotate”. V1 is the “commit to fly” speed, hence even if an engine fails while still on the ground but after V1, the flightcrew must continue the takeoff and get airborne. Rotate is the time for the pilot flying to use the aircraft sidestick to raise the nose of the aircraft to the takeoff attitude, which allows the aircraft to takeoff and start climbing.

Georgy Murzin: Called “positive climb”. Once the aircraft is climbing away it is time to retract the undercarriage, which removes a large amount of aircraft drag (wind hitting the wheels and struts) to allow the aircraft to increase airspeed and to climb away from the ground at a faster rate.

Captain Yusupov: “Landing gear up”.

After this both flightcrew continued with various checklist patters and instrument scans to adjust and check thrust levers, set the aircraft acceleration altitude, retract the flaps (flight systems used on takeoff to increase lift over the wing) and to monitor various systems. All of this occurs as a smooth flow against the backdrop of other distractions including aircraft vibration, the noise of the engines and other radio communications. For both our pilots their training allows them to ignore unnecessary distractions and allowed them to remain focused on core tasks specific to the takeoff and climb.

From the point of moving the throttles forward and the aircraft accelerating down the runway, all of this has occurred in less than 90 seconds. In this time the aircraft has been cleaned up (gear up, flaps up), is climbing at approximately 2,500 feet per minute and accelerating towards 180 knots.

Somewhere prior to 800 feet above the ground (approximately 20 seconds after lift-off), just as the crew have started to relax a little and have a greater sense of calm, expecting to connect automatic flight systems (autopilot) and to enter a standard climb to top of ascent, the unthinkable happened.

Known to local operators and authorities, the proliferation of birds near Zhukovsky Airfield has been attributed to illegal waste dumps. The deployed bird control measures are overwhelmed and considered insufficient.

Ural Airlines Flight 178 was climbing and accelerating, when first one engine, then the other, suddenly shut down. As cited by the flightcrew “A flock of birds entered the engines. The port engine stalled immediately, and then birds entered the other engine too, and its revolutions became uneven. The second engine stalled and there wasn’t enough thrust to keep the aircraft flying and the altitude began dropping rapidly.”

The crew have transitioned from a semi-relaxed state to one of extreme excitement, including a large release of ‘fight or flight’ chemicals, like the same physiological reaction as soldiers in combat. The outcome would have been a large increase in their heart rate, blood pressure, breathing rate and dilation of their pupils.

If a pilot can control his/her breathing and keep their heart rate at an optimum level (typically between 115-145 beats per minute) he/she will be more likely to deliver the outcomes required to manage the extreme event. If the heart rates get too high it can quickly result in freezing, submissive behaviour (withdrawal), voiding of bladder and bowels, and/or a significant loss of cognitive processing, peripheral vision (tunnel vision), fixation, deterioration of fine and complex motor skills and auditory exclusion. Not the response required given Captain Yusupov needed to make small, deliberate and controlled movements of the aircraft side stick if he was to have any chance of getting them safely back on the ground.

Suddenly, what the pilots had practiced in both the simulator and their previous flying training experiences, ie the ability to subconsciously slow and control their breathing to lower their heart rates (habit patterns for high performance) combined with prior visualisation of how they would manage a double engine failure, became critical for survival.

What happened in the next few seconds would determine the fate of the lives of all on board.

Staying cool under pressure

While we wait for the completion of the accident investigation and the release of the post-accident report to ascertain the events in detail, the assumption is that the flightcrew responded well to an extreme emergency.

A 70,000+ kg aircraft, no more than 800 feet above the ground is now a glider and heading very quickly back towards the earth. The cockpit is very noisy with multiple distractions, aural warnings and flashing screens trying to communicate the failures to the flightcrew. Ultimately, at this point of time, they are unnecessary distractions. There is very limited time to think. It requires an ability to prioritise the ‘aviate’ element of the ‘aviate-navigate-communicate’ work cycle, ie just fly the aircraft and don’t allow any other distractions to detract from this most critical task.

Staying cool under pressure requires a careful ability to manage high doses of the ‘fight and flight’ chemicals, many capable of rendering the poorly trained aviator useless under extreme levels of stress. It’s an element that attracts many to aviation, the rush one gets from the release of adrenaline under difficult situations. But always an event like this is one you hope you never have to experience.

When one engine failed, they thought they could still turn back to the airport. When they saw the second was also losing power, despite all their best efforts, the plane began losing height.

In the heat of the moment, Capt Yusupov would have experienced time slowing down, a positive reaction to the high levels of stress, allowing him to very quickly process information, and make decisions in milliseconds, almost subconsciously. During this period he was conscious in post-flight interviews that he changed his mind several times, because he was initially planning to gain height. Flight radar data shows that the A321 had only reached 797ft.

From the passengers’ perspective, “the plane started to shake violently after takeoff, five seconds later the lights on the right side of the plane started flashing and there was a smell of burning…then we landed, and everyone ran away”.

Yusupov and Murzin managed to stop the fuel supply to the engines and kept the jet level, gliding it down into the corn field, without lowering the undercarriage. With the wheels down, they knew there was a risk of flying debris rupturing the plane’s fuel tanks, which given the large amount of fuel onboard would have had catastrophic consequences leading to significant loss of life.

“I planned to reach a certain height, hold it there, figure out the engine failure, make the correct decision, work it all out. But then it turned out there was really hardly any time,” Yusupov said.

He landed the Airbus A321 in manual mode, requiring manual inputs to the side stick to bring the aircraft down into a corn field. The finesse required to control the ‘fight and flight’ response to deliver the right amounts of fine motor control is impressive. It cannot be overstated how limited was the time available to set the correct attitude and rate of descent: too slow with overcontrolling inputs and the aircraft stalls, essentially falling out of the sky; too fast with too great a rate of descent and there will be significant impact forces that could result in catastrophic structural failure, fire and serious injuries. Yusupov had to manually fly a precise speed to deliver the best outcome.

It was 10s of seconds from impact with the birds to being on the ground. The pilots landed the plane in the field with both engines turned off, a full tank of fuel, and no landing gear deployed one kilometre from the runway where the plane had just taken off. While there were injuries from the impact all onboard survived. About 70 of the passengers got medical attention, as the landing was rough and they were bruised, but just one person needed to stay in hospital.

Luckily, the high-standing maize crop acted like a cushion, and it was damp from rain, so sparks did not ignite it. In many other scenarios around Moscow the jet would have come up against a terrain of roads and buildings.

The finesse required to control the ‘fight and flight’ response to deliver the right amounts of fine motor control is impressive

A culture of learning from the lessons of others

One of the traits of International aviation is an ability to share lessons from each other. I have no doubt the landing of the aircraft on the Hudson River in New York provided Captain Yusupov with the insights he needed to consider what he would do if the same event (a flock of birds) caused his engines to fail.

One pilot who knows Yusupov but works in a different airline stated that: “the quality of the A321’s landing indicates that the pilot trained extensively enough to bring his engine failure response “to the point of automatisation”. It was also reported that he had practised emergency landings on a flight simulator at Ural Airlines, allowing him to deliver split second decisions under extreme stress.

“I really don’t feel like a hero,” Yusupov said. “I did what I had to do, saved the plane, the passengers, the crew.”

If he had not run this process through his mind and practiced it in the simulator, there is a high chance the outcome would not have been as successful. It is a process, similar to visualisation techniques utilised by high-performance athletes, that allows the mind to deliver automatic responses (if adequately trained and rehearsed) under extreme stress.

I have no doubt the performance of Captain Yusupov and his crew can be attributted to the traits identified by athletes within high-performance teams, which is worth a brief insight for future discussion.

Sports psychology and high performance

Leveraging on the extensive work of Dr. Jack Lesyk, the director of the Ohio Center for Sport Psychology and an Adjunct Asst. Professor of Psychology at Cleveland State University, there are many lessons we already apply if committed to delivering the highest professionalism and performance within our aviation system. Many of these likely contributed to the success of the Russian crew.

Dr Lesyk has found that what successful athletes have in common is that their profession (sport) is important to them and they’re committed to being the best that they can be within the scope of their limitations – other life commitments, finances, time, and their natural ability.

They set high, realistic goals for themselves and train and play hard. They are successful because they are pursuing their goals and enjoying their sport. Their sport participation enriches their lives and they believe that what they get back is worth what they put into their sport.

From Dr Lesyk’s work, there are nine, specific mental skills that contribute to success. They are all learned and can be improved with instruction and practice that have enhanced the performance of various ages and ability levels to help them learn and sharpen important skills.

The nine mental skills of successful athletes
1. Choose and maintain a positive attitude.
2. Maintain a high level of self-motivation.
3. Set high, realistic goals.
4. Deal effectively with people.
5. Use positive self-talk.
6. Use positive mental imagery.
7. Manage anxiety effectively.
8. Manage their emotions effectively.
9. Maintain concentration.

There is no doubt the crew of Ural Airlines Flight 178, including the cabin crew during post landing evacuation, displayed many of the above mental skills and likely established habit patterns based on utilising the mental skills as life skills.

In the short-term I would ask you to review your own attitude within the aviation industry against the nine mental skills to identify any areas where you’re not delivering your best. In a future article, we will explore these skills from an aviation context, with the aim of assisting you and your colleagues to maximise your ability to perform well under extreme stress, like the crew of Ural Airlines Flight 178.

The ability to remain focused on your role, particularly the responsibility of transporting large numbers of fare paying passengers, can never be underestimated. More importantly, if you’ve been doing the job for many years, I’m sure a re-focus on the above traits offers you the ability to enhance your professional standing, attitude and approach within our always demanding profession.