Buscar
When the Limbic System flies the airplane - cognitive upset as a non‑normal condition
By Captain Bassani - ATPL/B-727/DC-10/B-767 - Former Senior Aviation Accident Inspector - SIA PT. https://www.personalflyer.com.br - captbassani@gmail.com - May/2026 Image AI We have checklists and QRH procedures for almost every technical malfunction, yet subtle pilot incapacitation and “amygdala hijack” still sit at the fringes of our SOPs. In neuro‑ergonomic terms, this hijack is not a metaphor: it is a measurable shift where the limbic system briefly bypasses the prefront
A mature safety culture asks more than what went wrong!
In aviation, what happens in the real world rarely matches the procedure exactly as it is written.