Unruly Passengers

Unruly passenger behavior continues to be one of the biggest issues facing airlines and the severity of the problem continues to increase. Although much has been said about dealing with these cases there has been little reference to the causes. Sarah-Jane Prew, the publisher of… Continue Reading →

Words Than Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

Miscommunication arising from spoken interaction is a fact of life experienced, in one form or another, almost daily. Even two people speaking face-to-face, ostensibly in the same language, with a common background in the subject of the communication, frequently discover that what was meant was not what was understood. In casual discussion or routine business…… Continue Reading →

Decision Making

Decision making is the cognitive process of selecting a course of action from among multiple alternatives. The decision-making process produces a choice of action or an opinion that determines the decision maker's behavior and therefore has a profound influence on task performance. Decision making in an aeronautical environment involves any pertinent decision a pilot must…… Continue Reading →

Discipline in Aviation

This article defines discipline and illustrates its importance to safe flight operations. Its objective is to reinforce the importance of discipline as the foundation of airmanship and the need to follow procedures to ensure safe operations. The article also demonstrates that poor discipline is the direct result of attitudes that may lead a pilot to…… Continue Reading →

Situational Awareness

This article presents a definition of situational awareness. It explains the complex process of maintaining situational awareness, focuses on how it is lost and proposes prevention and recovery strategies. It is intended to help the reader gain and maintain situational awareness, to prevent falling into the traps associated with its loss and to avoid the…… Continue Reading →

Take-off performance calculation and entry errors – A global perspective

Everyday errors such as incorrectly transcribing or inadvertently dialling a wrong telephone number normally have minimal consequences. For high capacity aircraft operation, the consequence of such errors can be significant. There have been numerous take-off accidents worldwide that were the result of a simple data calculation or entry error by the flight crew. This report…… Continue Reading →

Threat and error management (TEM)

Threat and error management (TEM) is an overarching safety concept regarding aviation operations and human performance. TEM is not a revolutionary concept, but it evolved gradually, as a consequence of the constant drive to improve the margins of safety in aviation operations through the practical integration of Human Factors knowledge…. Continue Reading →