Definition
To reduce the severity, likelihood, or impact of a hazard or risk, without necessarily eliminating it entirely. In risk management, mitigation is one of several responses to identified risks, alongside avoiding, transferring, or accepting them.
Plain English
To make a risk smaller or less harmful. You may not be able to remove the danger completely, but you take action to reduce how likely it is to happen or how bad it would be if it did.
Context Anchor
Seen during flight planning, preflight decisions, and instructor discussions about identifying hazards and choosing safer actions.
Derivation
From Latin mitigare, meaning 'to soften or make mild.' The aviation use keeps that sense — you're not erasing the risk, you're softening it.
Why Pilots Care
Proper mitigation directly lowers the chance of incidents and supports safer go/no-go decisions.
Intuition Check
Mitigate does not mean eliminate. It means reduce the risk to a level that is acceptable for the flight.
Example Sentence 1
The pilot mitigated the risk of icing by planning the route at a lower altitude where temperatures stayed above freezing.
Example Sentence 2
Completing a weight-and-balance check mitigated the chance of an aft-center-of-gravity problem on takeoff.