SITUATION AWARNESS

“The perception of elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their status in the near future”

DEFINITION

Pilot speaks:

• Perceiving the features of the environment

• Knowing what they mean to relative to the flight

• Projecting their status into the future.

FACTS :

Investigation into recent accident data shows :

• 80% of airline accidents are caused by human performance failures (Endsley 1998, NTSB 1994)

• 75% of those accidents can be attributed to poor or inaccurate situational awareness

THEN :

Increasingly, human factors researchers view situational awareness as the key to good aeronautical decision-making.

• All decision models for our profession have SA as a key component

• Good data = Good decision

• Bad data = Bad decision

LEVEL OF SITUATION AWARENESS

Level 1: Perception

Simply noticing features in the environment

Level 2: Meaning

The assignment of meaning to those features

Level 3: Projection

Mentally stimulating the status of those features in the future

SA ERRORS

Level 1: Perception

• Failure to detect relevant information

• Information is there but not perceived

• Lack of knowledge

• Education/ignored

• Lack of information

• Resource utilization, lack of communication, poor team processes

  
  

Level 2: Meaning

• Lack of deep knowledge

• Failure to determine cause and effect relationship

• Failure to understand the “why” behind the information

• Failure to utilize resources effectively

• Fellow team members, other crew, technical resources

Level 3: Projection

• Failure to mentally simulate

• Failure to determine cause and effect relationship

• Failure to conduct threat management

QUALITY of Situational Awareness

BEST

• All relevant cues noticed and assigned meaning

• The crew is confident all relevant cues

BETTER

• All relevant cues noticed—some are assigned meaning

• The crew is not sure they have correctly accounted for all cues

NOT SO GOOD

• Some relevant cues are missing

• The Crew is uncertain that all relevant cues have been accounted for

BAD

• Some relevant cues have been missed

• The crew thinks they have accounted for all

  relevant cues

LOSS of Situational Awareness

• Lack of alertness

• Loss of recognition of warning signals

• Reduced ability to respond quickly & correctly

• Information overload

• Ambiguity

• Unclear information

• Fixation

• Improper procedures

• Deviation from SOP

• Failure to meet planned targets

• Gut feeling

MAINTAINING Situational Awareness

• Experience

• Training

• Spatial orientation

• Physical flying skills

• Ability to process information

• Cockpit management skills

• Personal attitude

• Emotional/physical conditions