An Information-Processing Model of the Aircraft Accident Investigator

Abstract

Verbal reports elicited from accident investigators and motion pictures of the investigators' activities during 16 investigations of light aircraft accidents were used as the empirical basis for a computer model of the aircraft accident investigator. The model simulates the major processes apparent in the investigators' reports, including the selection of aircraft and terrain features to be observed and the generating and testing of kinematics hypotheses. The computer program accepts a description of aircraft damage and gouge marks and generates a series of kinematics hypotheses. The effects of variations in investigator parameters on the outputs of the model were studied in a series of 40 simulation runs. A preliminary comparison was made between the output of the model and the conclusions of a human investigator working with the same data.