As I am sure most of you are unaware, I am of Colombian decent from both sides of my family. So I was very interested in what this book had to say about my heritage and it's ties to "legacy." In these moments my father is in his birth place of Medellin, Colombia and is due to fly back up to JFK in two days, so this really has a connection to me at this moment.
In the question I was asked by Navdeep, there is a quote from the book on page 202 in which Ratwatte (a skilled pilot himself) states that "What if there was something about the pilots' being Colombian that led to the crash?" By reading this in the question I immediately thought, "of course not! Why should a specific ethnicity matter?" I then went further into trying to find why this might be the case. Gladwell points out on page 194 the act of mitigating and why this isn't the best thing a pilot should do in an emergency situation. Mitigating is usually done when someone is speaking to another who is ranked higher than they are. In page 201, Ratwatte brings up that Air Traffic Control (ATC) in New York City can be rude and aggressive because they need to control so many flights in such a small period of time. The pilots on the Avianca flight 52 were both Colombian and Caviedes (51) had some difficulty speaking in English with ATC and wanted translating when he got to tiered. His co-pilot Klotz (28) throughout the transcript didn't use terminology that he needed to in an emergency situation and continued to mitigate instead of saying that they were in an emergency situation.
One thing that came to my mind is how much I could relate with Klotz when he was speaking to ATC. I mitigate in almost every conversation I have. I don't directly say anything just so I wont sound rude and aggressive (much like the opposite of ATC in NYC). Caviedes and Klotz even in a dire situation like the one they were in weren't going to say, "This is an EMERGENCY situation! We are limited on fuel and we need to land ASAP." That wasn't going to happen. So I can agree that this could have affected the mistakes leading up to the crash. I then read on pages 207-209 about power distance index and how Colombia is ranked as one of the higher ones. This means typically Colombians tend to respect authority and see themselves underneath superiors. This was what led Klotz to not being assertive enough to place the planes need above the demands of ATC. I feel that the evidence Gladwell used to explain this idea was good but I don't actually agree with it. Yes, there can be that respect of authority that Colombians might have but there can be differences within the population itself. Colombia is a place of many cultures and there is plenty of places where PDI can be higher than others. If Gladwell wanted to make a bigger point, he should have researched the different places Caviedes and Klotz came from within Colombia. If they had came from farming regions in the southeast where guerrilla warfare is something to be worried about than they will have some kind of respect for those above them. If Caviedes or Klotz came from the city there would be a much lower PDI.
Yes, there can be some culture ties related to plane crash but it was really the lack of miscommunication the pilots had with ATC. I found an article from the LA Times which states that Colombian pilots at the time never used the terminology that the Americans at ATC were accustomed to. http://articles.latimes.com/1990-06-22/news/mn-109_1_specific-emergency
They didn't have to use this terminology because they would just say what was happening instead of using these terms. It might not have to do with culture after all but just what is said and done to train the pilots themselves.
Yes, there can be some culture ties related to plane crash but it was really the lack of miscommunication the pilots had with ATC. I found an article from the LA Times which states that Colombian pilots at the time never used the terminology that the Americans at ATC were accustomed to. http://articles.latimes.com/1990-06-22/news/mn-109_1_specific-emergency
They didn't have to use this terminology because they would just say what was happening instead of using these terms. It might not have to do with culture after all but just what is said and done to train the pilots themselves.
Thank you for your insight!!! I think it's interesting how compared to the city and the farming regions there's a difference in PDI. I'm assuming because farming is more family orientated while in the city you're open to more independent opportunities as you can work for yourself and move out, etc.
ReplyDeleteI agree the terminology might have had a big part into as well as there a lot of miscommunication among Klotz and Caviedes as Caviedes claimed he couldn't even hear Klotz at some points during the conversation. Who knows maybe Klotz remained calm as a way to avoid panicking himself, maybe he thought everything would pass but it didn't sadly..