COPING WITH AIRCRAFT EMERGENCIES AND BUILDING FIRES: SOME EXPLORATORY QUALITATIVE (GROUNDED THEORY) STUDIES OF THE PERSONAL EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE INVOLVED IN TWO TYPES OF EMERGENCIES

摘要

Understanding the ways in which individuals try to make sense of and then deal with emergency situations, particularly those involving entrapment such as building fires and aircraft emergencies, has implications for design and refinement of emergency guidelines and safety training procedures. Past research on behaviour in emergencies has identified various styles and strategies of coping with stressful and dangerous circumstances. This study (a preliminary report) consists of interviews with six people (four passengers, a co-pilot and one ex-flight attendant) who experienced different aircraft emergencies. Using an abbreviated Grounded Theory approach (Strauss & Corbin, 1997), five categories emerged that described the quality of the experience: 'Coping with the Emergency', 'Vulnerability and Mortality', 'Disreality', 'Control' and 'Disconnection'. 'Coping with the Emergency' integrated four coping strategies that in turn mediated the other categories. The coping styles are: existential-focussed coping, spiritual-focussed coping, sensation-focussed coping and pragmatic-focussed coping. Role was the organising concept as there appeared to be clear differences in negotiating the emergency and coping strategies used by passengers compared to crew. Passengers relied more on existential-focussed coping, spiritual-focussed coping and sensation-focussed coping whereas the crew used sensation-focussed coping and pragmatic-focussed coping strategies.