Definition
The process of identifying hazards associated with a flight or training activity, assessing the level of risk each one presents, and then taking deliberate action to reduce that risk to an acceptable level before and during the operation.
Plain English
Spotting what could go wrong, deciding how serious it is, and then doing something about it to make the flight safer.
Context Anchor
Seen in preflight planning, flight instruction, go/no-go decisions, and any situation where a pilot or instructor decides how to make a flight safer before proceeding.
Derivation
‘Mitigate’ comes from the Latin mitigare, meaning ‘to soften or make milder.’ In aviation it means softening the impact of a hazard — not necessarily eliminating it, but reducing how likely it is to hurt you or how badly it could.
Why Pilots Care
Unmitigated risks are a leading factor in aviation accidents; systematically lowering them improves safety margins and supports better go/no-go decisions.
Grounding Statement
If a risk is too high, mitigating it means changing something real—such as the route, timing, aircraft loading, weather minimums, or training plan—so the flight is safer.
Intuition Check
Mitigating risk does not mean making a flight risk-free. It means taking deliberate action to lower the chance of trouble, lower the seriousness of the outcome, or both.
Example Sentence 1
The instructor mitigated the risk of the crosswind training flight by selecting a wider runway and limiting the lesson to gusts below the student's demonstrated ability.
Example Sentence 2
Setting personal minimums for ceiling and visibility is one practical way a pilot mitigates risk on every cross-country flight.