United States Department of Transportation
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Flight Crew Task Management: Baseline Assessment
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2024-08-30
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[PDF-1.11 MB]
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Alternative Title:Flight Crew Task Management: Baseline Assessment — Phase 1
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Edition:Technical Report 10/28/2022 – 8/30/2024
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Abstract:This study documents a baseline of casual and contributing factors to flight deck task management deficiencies and vulnerabilities in flightpath monitoring, and air traffic interactions which affect flightpath management. Sixty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with participant backgrounds ranging from captains, first officers, check pilots, training personnel and other individuals familiar with flight deck task management primarily in Part 121 or similar Part 135 operations. Participants worked for domestic U.S. operators, or European based operators. The study found several human factors contributing to task management deficiencies and vulnerabilities including interruptions, disruptions, distractions, communication, time management, pressure, task load, task saturation, task allocation, fatigue, stress, individual differences, international ATC, system complexity, and operational complexity. Six categories of mitigations were identified related to communication mitigations, policies and procedures, prioritization strategies, metacognitive strategies, strategic and tactical strategies for organizing tasks, and training. However, these mitigations do not fully address the impact of high workload and stress on task management. While participants perceived some mitigations to be effective, gaps remain in providing comprehensive task management strategies, especially for high workload conditions, and methods to effectively train task management. Next steps should include (1) explorations of training opportunities to strengthen current mitigations, including development of skills needed for effectively executing task management strategies, (2) exploration of potentially new mitigations for stress and fatigue, and (3) validating the relative importance and relationships of the factors identified in this work, as the factors identified did not occur in isolation but were interconnected and related to one another.
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