Flight Crew Error Research Articles

Flight Deck Simulation of Complex Clearance Information Entry During Relative Spacing Arrival Operations

Interval management (IM) uses Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast to provide greater air traffic system throughput and efficiency by improving inter-aircraft spacing precision. The IM Dependent Staggered Approach (DSA) application enables aircraft within a pair to achieve a spacing objective when arriving to parallel, dependently scheduled runways. These operations may require lengthier or more complex IM clearance communications that, coupled with manual entry of ownship route information and forecast winds, can result in a more challenging setup task than has been previously examined. An experiment with 16 pilots was conducted to examine the flight crew acceptability, feasibility, and technical assumptions related to conducting IM DSA operations in a metering environment with voice communications. Results show flight crew errors during entry of the clearance elements into the Cockpit Display of Traffic Information traffic display, especially with a long and highly complex IM clearance. The manual entry of ownship route and forecast wind information also appeared to increase the complexity of the entry task and the potential for errors. Recommendations are made to the Federal Aviation Administration and equipment manufacturers regarding IM communications and the design of related flight deck displays to avoid entry errors and, when they occur, indicate the source to pilots.

Urban Air Mobility: Safety Challenges

Aviation industry has increased its potential in the last 100 years. From the first steps whereas aviation 1.0 can be defined as the period between the first powered flight (1903) and the advent of the first commercial airliner that was operated on a scheduled international route, the Airco DH.16 (1919) between London and Paris, humanity has faced with the (r)evolution which goes by the many names of flying cars, air taxis, personal air vehicles (PAVs), electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOLs) vehicles, and finally, Urban Air Mobility. Therefore, the concept of safety and its evolution has been changed for many times. Those changes are influenced by different approaches which roughly align with eras of activities in the aviation science and practice. Main approaches, by the time of occurrence, are: technical era (from early 1900s until late 1960s), human factors era (from early 1970s), organizational era (from mid 1990s) and total system era (from the beginning of the 21st century). Compounding evolution of technology and development in aviation industry and safety treats and aspects, this paper provides overall analysis of creating dominant safety management principles in aviation industry. Moreover, paper considers aircraft accidents caused by flight crew errors since it could be the main problem in urban air mobility safety issues. The final part is dedicated to the States role in performing aviation safety and challenges they are faced with. The purpose of the paper is to provide comprehensive platform for safety analysis within the new concept of urban air mobility.

Pilots’ Scanning Behavior Between Different Airport Intersection Maneuvers in a Simulated Taxiing Task

Among flight crew errors, 54% occurred in the taxiing phase, especially near intersections in low visibility situations. This paper examines pilots' scanning behavior when executing different turning maneuvers at airport intersections both on clear days and in low visibility situations. The Beijing International Airport was reconstructed in an Airbus 320 simulator. Eight male pilots participated in this study. The pilots were required to take full manual control from the last approach point and to taxi according to the predetermined flight plan. The pilots' fixation rate, average fixation duration, and dwell time percentage in each area of interest (AOI) were analyzed during the turning maneuvers near four examined intersections. The results showed that the dwell time percentages in the electronic centralized aircraft monitoring (ECAM) area when executing right turn maneuvers were significantly higher than those when executing left turn maneuvers on clear days. In low visibility situations, the percentages of dwell time in the right view out of the window (OTWR) area when executing right turn maneuvers were significantly higher than those when executing left turn maneuvers. To examine if the scanning behavior reported in this study is safe or not, the pilots' responses to potentially dangerous situations should be further studied.

Flight Crew Errors in Challenging and Stressful Situations

Abstract. Emergencies and other threatening situations challenge the cognitive capabilities of even the most skilled performers. While the effects of acute stress on cognition and performance have been examined in diverse laboratory studies, few studies have focused on skilled performers. We analyzed 12 airline accidents to determine the types of errors arising in situations that are highly challenging and probably stressful. We identified 212 flight crew errors from accident investigation reports; these errors were grouped into eight higher-level error categories. Cognitive factors contributing to vulnerability to these errors were identified and related to theoretical models of stress. Finally, we suggest specific ways to guard against stress-related errors by enhancing training, operating procedures, and cockpit interfaces.

Assessment of Flight Crew Errors Based on THERP

The purpose of this study is to reduce the aviation accidents and incidents induced by flight crew errors. A flight crew errors analysis and classification system is developed preliminary. In combination with aviation flight accidents exploration, and interviews with pilots, the human error modes which will occur in the flight task are identified. A quantitative method to assess flight crew errors is established on Technique For Human Error Rate Prediction (THERP). In a case study, the takeoff task is analyzed, the human error modes and consequences are identified, and the failure probability of takeoff task is calculated. Those results are useful for SSA (System Safety Assessment) to improve the aircraft safety design.

Identification of significant threats and errors affecting aviation safety in Taiwan using the analytical hierarchy process

This study ranked the significant threats and human errors affecting aviation safety. Two-phase questionnaires were used to elicit experts' views on four categories of human errors and threats comprising twenty-three criteria. The analytical hierarchy process was used to calculate the weight for each criteria which were then ranked in order of importance. The study indicated that flight crew errors are the most important threats.

NASA Langley Crew Systems Contributions to Aviation Safety Technology: Results of Studies to Date

The goal of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) Aviation Safety program is to reduce the number of fatal aircraft accidents worldwide by 80% within 10 years and by 90% within 20 years. Because flight crew error is cited as a causal factor in approximately 70% of aviation accidents occurring from 1985 to 1995 (Boeing, 1996), NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) is leading studies for the Aviation Safety program toward reducing flight crew error with synthetic vision and improved aviation weather information. Synthetic vision is defined as augmented visual displays in which terrain, traffic, and obstacle database information, enhanced by computer graphics and other information, are presented to the flight crew. The Aviation Weather Information (AWIN) project involves determining flight crew requirements for cockpit weather information, integrating weather information products on the flight deck, and designing proper interfaces for their use. This paper presents results of studies to date in these two areas which are leading to new design concepts for significant mitigation of flight crew error. Indications are presented of the relative contributions of these technologies to the Aviation Safety program goal of reduced aviation accidents worldwide.

A Simulator Study of the Effect of Information Load and Datalink on Crew Error

This study investigated the effects of air traffic control (ATC) induced information load and ATC communication modality on crew error in a fixed-base Boeing 747-400 flight deck simulator. To accomplish this, data from an experiment conducted by Boeing (Logan, et al., 1992) were re-analyzed. In this experiment, flightcrews engaged in two high-fidelity, full-mission scenarios. For this re-analysis, the variability in the amount of information ATC transmitted to the crew in the scheduled clearances was examined as an independent variable. To quantify this measure of information load, each scheduled ATC clearance was decomposed into mutually exclusive informational units called propositions. Each proposition consisted of one discrete “chunk” of information. On average, ATC clearances in the high information load condition contained more than two and a half times as many propositions as clearances in the low information load condition. Flightcrews made significantly more errors, and more errors per proposition, in the high information load condition than in the low information load condition. This indicates that it was the density of the information, or how many propositions were packed into each clearance, and not just the quantity of information which affected crew performance. Another manipulated variable was ATC communication modality. Each flightcrew participated in one scenario using a standard voice communications modality exclusively and in the other scenario using a combination of voice and digital DataLink. Though flightcrew error was significantly lower in the DataLink condition than the voice condition, this tendency was moderated by information load. In the low information load condition, flightcrews committed approximately the same number of errors in the voice and DataLink conditions, but in the high information load condition, flightcrews committed many more errors in the voice condition than the DataLink condition.