This paper reports a detailed analysis of over 300 civilian incident reports that identified whether loss of situation awareness (SA) was related to air crew role assignment. The results indicate (a) that loss of SA is responsible for an incident more often when the captain is at the controls than when the first officer (FO) is at the controls, and (b) that the pilot flying (PF) is more likely to lose situation awareness than the pilot not flying (PNF). As a result, captains lose SA more often across aircraft types, flight segments, and weather conditions when they are the PF than when they are the PNF. The results also suggest that the person who is flying commits more of the critical errors that lead to an incident. Together, the results indicate that captains lose SA more often and make more tactical errors when they are at the controls than when they are not. Applications of this research include aircrew training, procedure development, and accident/incident analysis.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Berman, B. A. (1995)Flightcrew errors and the contexts in which they occurred: 37 major U. S. carrier accidents. In Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Aviation Psychology ( 1291–1294)Columbus, OH: Ohio State University.
2.
Besco, R. (1995, August 7)To intervene or not to intervene? The copilot's catch 22Meeting Minutes from the Crew Fitness Subcommittee (G-10A) of the Society of Automotive Engineers (15–26)Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers.
3.
Bowers, C., Urban, J., & Morgan, B. B. (1995)The study of crew coordination and performance in hierarchical team decision making (Team Performance Laboratory Tech. Report 92--01)Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida.
4.
Endsley, M., & Rogers, M. D. (1996)Attention distribution and situation awareness in air traffic control. In Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 40th Annual Meeting (82–85)Santa Monica, CA: Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
5.
Jentsch, F., Bowers, C., Bowen, S., Nadal, O., Secrease, C., & Sellin-Wolters, S. (1995)Links between aeronautical decision making and crew coordination (Tech. Report for the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division)Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida.
6.
Jentsch, F., Irvin, J., & Bowers, C. (1997)Development and testing of a diagnostic and training tool for PNF backup behaviors (Tech. Report for the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division and the Office of the Chief Advisor for Human Factors at the Federal Aviation Administration)Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida.
7.
Jentsch, F., Martin, L., & Bowers, C. (1997)Identifying critical training needs for junior first officers (Tech. Report for the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division and the Office of the Chief Advisor for Human Factors at the Federal Aviation Administration)Orlando, FL: University of Central Florida.
8.
Komich, J. (1985)An analysis of the dearth of assertiveness by subordinate crew members. In Proceedings of the 3rd Symposium on Aviation Psychology (431–436)Columbus, OH: Ohio State University.
9.
National Transportation Safety Board [NTSB]. (1994)Safety study: A review of flightcrew-involved, major accidents of U.S. air carriers, 1978 through 1990Washington, DC: Author. (NTIS No. PB 94-917001)
10.
Orasanu, J. (1995)Evaluating team situation awareness through communication. In D. J. Garland & M. R. Endsley(Eds.), Proceedings of an International Conference on Experimental Analysis and Measurement of Situation Awareness (283–288)Daytona Beach, FL: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Press.
11.
Pew, R. (1995)The state of situational awareness measurement: Circa 1995. In D. J. Garland & M. R. Endsley(Eds.), Proceedings of an International Conference on Experimental Analysis and Measurement of Situation Awareness (7–15)Daytona Beach, FL: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Press.
12.
Prince, C., Salas, E., Bowers, C., & Jentsch, F. (1995)Team situation awareness research: Many paths to a destination. In D. J. Garland & M. R. Endsley(Eds.), Proceedings of an International Conference on Experimental Analysis and Measurement of Situation Awareness (129–134)Daytona Beach, FL: Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Press.
13.
Robertson, M., & Endsley, M. (1995)The role of crew resource management (CRM) in achieving team situational awareness. In Human factors in aviation operations: Proceedings of the 21st Conference of the European Association for Aviation Psychology (Vol. 3, 281–286)London: Avebury Aviation.
14.
Salas, E., Prince, C., Baker, D., & Shrestha, L. (1995)Situation awareness in team performance: Implications for measurement and trainingHuman Factors, 37, 123–136.
15.
Sarter, N., & Woods, D. D. (1995)How in the world did we ever get into that mode? Mode error and awareness in supervisory controlHuman Factors, 37, 5–19.
16.
Stewart, S. (1992)Flying the big jets (3rd ed.)Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife.
17.
Wellens, A. R. (1993)Group situation awareness and distributed decision making from military to civilian applications. In N. J. Castellan, Jr. (Ed.), Individual and group decision making: Current issues (267–291)Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
