What is the effect of alcohol on flight performance and decompression risk?

• A. They improve cognitive and psychomotor performance during flight
• B. They have no effect on hypoxia
• C. They impair cognitive and psychomotor performance essential for safety
• D. They increase oxygen-carrying capacity

Answer: (C)

Alcohol dulls the mental and motor skills you rely on during flight. It slows thinking, judgment, and reaction time, and it impairs coordination and hand-eye control. In the cockpit, these faculties are essential for maintaining situational awareness, interpreting instruments, managing tasks, and responding quickly to emergencies. When a decompression event occurs, you must recognize the situation, don oxygen, descend promptly, and communicate and coordinate with the crew. Impaired cognition and psychomotor function make those safety-critical actions slower and more error-prone, increasing risk. Alcohol does not improve performance or increase oxygen-carrying capacity; its effect is to degrade safety-critical abilities, which is why the correct choice emphasizes impairment of cognitive and psychomotor performance essential for safety.