Workload management and geographic disorientation in aviation incidents: A review of the ASRS data baseNASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) incident reports are reviewed in two related areas: pilots' failures to appropriately manage tasks, and breakdowns in geographic orientation. Examination of 51 relevant reports on task management breakdowns revealed that altitude busts and inappropriate runway usee were the most frequently reported consequences. Task management breakdowns appeared to occur at all levels of expertise, and prominent causal factors were related to breakdowns in crew communications, over-involvement with the flight management system and, for small (general aviation) aircraft, preoccupation with weather. Analysis of the 83 cases of geographic disorientation suggested that these too occurred at all levels of pilot experience. With regard to causal factors, a majority was related to poor cockpit resource management, in which inattention led to a loss of geographic awareness. Other leading causes were related to poor weather and poor decision making. The potential of the ASRS database for contributing to research and design issues is addressed.
Document ID
19950063596
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Williams, Henry P. (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL US, United States)
Tham, Mingpo (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL US, United States)
Wickens, Christopher D. (Univ. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL US, United States)