Carla Hackworth

Federal Aviation Administration | FAA · Human Factors

The purpose of this report is to document the development of LOSA in flight operations, its successes and lessons learned, and describe the extension of the flight deck version of LOSA to aviation maintenance and ramp operations.

Introduction. Over the last 20 years, nearly 40,000 general aviation (GA) aircraft were involved in accidents, roughly 20% of which were fatal. To address this safety concern, scientists have often relied on accident data. Because of the rare nature of accidents, commercial aviation incident and near miss data may prove to be useful sources of safe...

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how and why flight progress strips are currently used in air traffic control towers in the United States. The 3 main staffing positions in the tower, flight-data/clearance delivery (FD/CD), ground control (GC), and local control (LC), were observed by subject-matter experts at 10 contr...

There are many international approaches to the regulation of human factors programs for aviation maintenance organizations. Transport Canada and the European Aviation Safety Agency have established specific regulations regarding maintenance human factors. The Federal Aviation Administration has not yet established regulations but, instead, has crea...

There are many international approaches to the regulation of human factors programs for aviation maintenance organizations. Transport Canada and the European Aviation Safety Agency have specific regulations regarding maintenance human factors. The Federal Aviation Administration has not yet established regulations but, instead, has created guidance...

Technically advanced "glass cockpit" aircraft are making their way into general aviation. Aside from technical challenges presented by learning any new system, pilots report some difficulty in acquiring a conceptual understanding of the functions offered by the avionics, developing system monitoring skills and habits, developing mode management and...

The aim of this study was to extend previous examinations of aviation accidents to include specific aircrew, environmental, supervisory, and organizational factors associated with two types of commercial aviation (air carrier and commuter/ on-demand) accidents using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS). HFACS is a theoretica...

General aviation (GA) accidents that occurred in Alaska versus the rest of the United States were compared using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS). Overall, categorical differences among unsafe acts (decision errors, skill-based errors, perceptual errors, and violations) committed by pi-lots involved in accidents in Alask...

The present study provided support for the relevance of social intelligence—to social influence. Consistent with but extending past research, recognizing situational influences (i.e., discriminative facility) was associated with effective social interactions. In particular, individuals high in discriminative facility demonstrated greater flexibilit...

Pilots and crewmembers of flights exceeding 7620 m/mean sea level (msl) are required to complete ground training in high-altitude physiology, including hypoxia training. However, regulations do not require altitude chamber training (ACT). An anonymous questionnaire concerning their experiences and perceptions of hypoxia training was filled out by 6...

Prompted by Congressional direction, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) instituted a means of assessing employee attitudes following the 1981 air traffic controllers' strike. As a result, the FAA first administered the Employee Attitude Survey (EAS) to its employees in 1984. The survey has been administered nine times since its inception, mo...

In 2003, the Federal Aviation Administration established an air traffic performance-based organization called the Air Traffic Organization (ATO). The purpose of this paper was to combine data from the former ATS, ARA, and AOZ organizations from the 2003 Employee Attitude Survey (EAS) into the appropriate post-ATO service units to establish a baseli...

Many Air Traffic Control Specialists (ATCSs) in the United States work shift schedules that involve counterclockwise rapid rotations. Researchers have reported negative health effects associated with shiftwork, suggesting that workers on rotating shift schedules suffer the greatest consequences. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent of...

In this study, air traffic control instructors controlled simulated traffic while three techniques for determining situation awareness (SA) were implemented. SA was assessed using a self-report measure (SART); a query method that removed information on the plan-view display (SAGAT); a query technique that did not have a memory component (SPAM); and...

Currently, en route control of high altitude flights between airports uses computer-augmented radar information available on the Plan View Display (PVD), Computer Readout Device (CRD), and flight information printed on Flight Progress Strips (PPSs). The EPS contains thirty-one fields that supplement data available on the PVD. While an aircraft is i...

En route operational errors that occurred during 1993 were analyzed to determine if controllers who were aware that an error was developing differed from unaware controllers in the type and severity of errors they made. Neither the personnel nor the air traffic situation distinguished "aware" from "unaware" controllers. However, unaware controllers...

The purpose of this study is to assess what airline companies have done, are doing or are planning to do regarding the human factors maintenance elements of 14 CFR Part 145. International data will provide an opportunity to determine if voluntary versus regulatory approaches to the development of human factors programs for maintenance organizations...