Human Factors in Air Traffic Control Training (by Graeme Stagg)

NewTechnology

Never mind the new technology of tomorrow's ATC world and the promises and panaceas it may bring to this vital area of the aviation industry; the ATC world of today finds itself firmly in the public limelight and under increasing pressure to cope safely and expeditiously with the seemingly inexorable rise in air traffic over the latter half of the 1980s. This at a time when the ATC system is still equipped with yesterday's technology designed around a well proven and reliable operational philosophy with origins dating back to the 1960s. Albeit modified to match the current situation, it has now reached the limit of its development.

The Gulf war and its concomitant terrorist threat against the airlines caused a sudden and dramatic decrease in passenger traffic which, combined with the global economic recession has, in the short term, brought some relief to ATC capacity. However, the breathing space is unlikely to last until the benefits of ambitious investment programs in new ATC equipment and additional ATCO training schemes are realised. Looking ahead even further, advanced air traffic systems incorporating the latest technology, such as Mode S datalink, should make a significant impact on both safety and expedition of air traffic by the late 1990's. If the best possible use is to be made of technology in future ATC systems, substantial changes need to be made in current operating techniques. In the meantime, can anything be done to make better use of present resources to enable a safer transition during the interval years of the early and mid 1990s?

Exploiting the Flight Deck Lead

Perhaps inspiration could be obtained from taking a lead from some of the ideological changes being promoted and implemented on the flight deck. The role and function of ATC has an inseparable connection with the aircraft flight deck which, historically, enabled a reasonably cohesive development of the technical and operational requirements for both. However, for political, economic and commercial reasons, ATC has traditionally been the poorer relation. Operating on the wrong side of the financial drag curve it is little wonder ATC has not always delivered the service the airline industry expected. I have often pondered, particularly whilst witnessing yet another stack of jumbos "holding" in the London TMA, why so much human endeavor and financial resource continues to be devoted to the manufacture of safer, more cost effective and fuel efficient aircraft when so comparatively little of the same ingredients are spent on ATC!

Put into monetary perspective the value of a stack of hi-tech aeronautical juggernauts is greater than some of the more ambitious European ATC investment budgets planned for the 1990s. However, to return to the theme of ATC taking a lead from the flight deck, I refer to the important work that is being done in the field of Cockpit Resource Management (CRM). CRM, by definition, is pilot based and so is heavily influenced by Human Factors.

Both of these topics, are now recognized by regulatory authorities as concepts of major importance for enhancing flight safety. Indeed, Human Factors has been endorsed by ICAO as a training requirement for professional pilots and a pass in the subject mandatory for the issue of an UK CAA license. Therefore, what's (re)SOURCE for the pilots should also be (re)SOURCE for the ATCOs. So, why not adapt some of these ideas for the benefit of ATC?

Resource Management and Human Factors in ATC.

Operation of a control tower or a control center, like the flight deck, is a highly skilled team game performed by groups of humans playing for valuable stakes. Numerically, controllers often work in larger teams with direct access to greater resources than pilots. Furthermore, certain aspects of resource management and human factors are, I believe, more vital in the ATC role than on the flight deck. Flight deck management is rarely executed by individual action without the crew being able to cross-check or monitor each other. In ATC, the team-working relationship is more complex due to the specific nature of their highly individual roles within the team. ATCOs often work in remote locations and are able to make inter-dependent operational decisions in isolation from their colleagues without being cross-checked or monitored. This loose, more fragmented team-work relationship in ATC must accentuate the need for training control staff in the disciplines of resource management.

Therefore, with few exceptions, the words "pilot" and "cockpit" could, readily be substituted for "controller and ATC" in many of the CRM/Human Factors articles published on this subject. It is certainly not the intention to plagiarize these well written commentaries but reprinting a couple of extracts from them should be sufficient to demonstrate my point.

Firstly, the CRM relationship with ATC starting with the best definition of CRM I could find which is:

"The optimum and efficient allocation of available resources to the crew, (ATC team?) including personnel, facilities, equipment and manuals"

Secondly, the idea of how a flight-crew should operate (shown in figure). This concept applies equally to the ATC team simply by substituting "airmanship" for "controlmanship" or "ATCO operational judgement" as it is sometimes known.

Thirdly, ATC development of an "on the job" training system akin to Line Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) which incorporates full mission simulations of scenarios that are representative of both routine and emergency situations. In ATC, the full potential for operational refresher training and the further development training of younger qualified controllers using simulators is only just being grasped. Pilots automatically accept the need for regular retraining of their skills and the importance of demonstrating, in a simulator, their competence to acceptable levels of safety and efficiency.

In particular, great importance is attached to the handling of emergency situations. This is not so for controllers. In the past, a lack of suitable ATC

simulators combined with ingrained attitudes opposing parallel forms of training have made the introduction of such training difficult to achieve. Fortuitously, the number of actual aircraft emergencies are much fewer. Consequently, so too are the number of occasions an ATCO is exposed to handling a real in-flight emergency. This situation, fortunate though it may be, creates an obvious training problem which can be rectified only by providing suitable and appropriate simulator training where ATCO's, like pilots, can be properly trained in this vital area. This training must include the teaching of "controlmanship" skills with particular emphasis on the non technical aspects displayed on the KLM chart such as communication, motivation, initiative, teamwork etc. Training scenarios should permit demonstrations of how well those skills can be applied, and should be conducted under non punitive conditions to achieve maximum benefit.

It has always been my view that, because the personal qualities required to become a controller are broadly similar to those of a pilot, they share the same basic psyche.

Therefore, I have taken a straight quote from Gisele Richardson's excellent article which encapsulates the type of human factors parallel that exists between pilots and controllers:

"When I speak of the human error in aviation and its impact on safety, I am referring to what is broadly defined as "personality" rather than technical knowledge. I am not concerned with situations where a person is overwhelmed by circumstances beyond his control, or where he does not know the proper response, but rather where he does have the knowledge and inexplicably does not use it. I am talking about JUDGEMENT and why it becomes vulnerable when we are under pressure, what are some of the causes, and how to mitigate them".

Summary

The value of CRM and Human Factors training as a flight safety and efficiency multiplier on the flight deck is clear. The benefits for the flight deck are such that both subjects are now formal training requirements for professional pilots. The potential benefits for ATC, if the same ideology was to be adapted and implemented for training controllers, is also evident. Therefore, Resource Management and Human Factors should be fully incorporated into current operational and basic training techniques for ATCOs. This would serve two very useful purposes. It would improve the Air Traffic system to cope with the growth in traffic during the next 5 years and, in the longer term, would better prepare controllers to operate the new technology which will replace current systems in the late 1990s.

Source: FOCUS on Commercial Aviation Safety – Spring 1992

The official publication of the Flight Safety Committee, United Kingdom