Abstract
One of the key enabling technologies required to achieve the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) goals is Data Communication (Data Comm) between controllers and pilots. It reduces voice communication congestion and errors. A concern about Data Comm is that it can fail. Our en route simulation experimental results showed that controllers talked with pilots more frequently after failure compared to the same scenario without failure. Workload also increased, but the difference was not statistically significant. We did not find any significant increase in the frequencies of clearances issued after failure. The participant controllers responded that partial and system failures were detrimental to their performance. They commented that the aircraft failure symbol needed to be more pronounced and that they would need help after partial and total system failures in heavy traffic. We present recommendations to alleviate the problems from Data Comm failure.
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