[PhantomGremlin]

Aural warnings are so easy to ignore.

Yes. You give an example of someone ignoring a single aural warning. The case of AF447 was much worse.

There was a cacophony of different sounds and noises in the cockpit of AF447. All the various alarms are deliberately made to sound different. But when someone knows he's a minute from death, there's no way his reptilian brain can make sense of a plethora of simultaneous alarms. It will, instead, strive to tune them all out.

I remember a documentary where Duke Cunningham discussed his experiences as a fighter ace in Vietnam. In high stress situations he would switch his intercom to allow him to speak to his RIO, but not be able to hear his RIO. He didn't want the distraction. (Note: sadly, Cunningham disgraced himself in later life).

[mikeash]

I built a gear warning system for my glider. The usual ones just have either as steady tone or a pulsing tone. I made mine do a pulsing tone with different speeds, then it actually spells out "WARNING GEAR UP" in morse code. I don't know morse code, but I figured the irregular pattern would make it more identifiable and harder to ignore.

I've seen it advised to turn off the aircraft radio when it's not useful and you're in the middle of something tricky, like climbing out from a low altitude, or landing in a field.

[engi_nerd]

> I've seen it advised to turn off the aircraft radio when it's not useful and you're in the middle of something tricky, like climbing out from a low altitude, or landing in a field.

Makes sense. "Aviate, navigate, communicate".