The reduced oxygen breathing apparatus invokes potentially intense hypoxia.

by Paul Bertorelli

If pilots don’t love acronyms, they at least learn to live with them, but here’s one you probably haven’t heard: MEGO. I found it penciled in the margin of a manuscript that had been reviewed by an editor I worked for in the distant past. MEGO means “my eyes glaze over” and a manuscript so labeled was deemed too boring to even merit further comment.

Articles about hypoxia often go MEGO one better, some substituting nicely for a sedative chased with a glass of wine. That’s to say that pilots—especially those most exposed routinely to hypoxia—tend to downplay its hazards because they’ve never experienced it. Despite recent high-profile hypoxia-induced…