United States Department of Transportation
i
Flight Deck Human Factors Issues in Lateral Deviations during North Atlantic (NAT) Flight Operations
-
2020-03-04
-
[PDF-1.37 MB]
Details:
-
Creators:
-
Corporate Creators:
-
Corporate Contributors:
-
Subject/TRT Terms:
-
Publication/ Report Number:
-
Resource Type:
-
Geographical Coverage:
-
Edition:Final report
-
Contracting Officer:
-
Corporate Publisher:
-
Abstract:This study examines reported lateral flight path deviations related to the use of half-degree waypoint coordinates in the North Atlantic (NAT). Such waypoints can have ambiguous display labels on flight deck displays, which might result in flightcrew errors. We explored the magnitude of the issue and potential mitigations. We also reviewed literature related to flight deck data entry for route entry and verification. This included a review of studies about naming conventions for the United States National Reference System (NRS), which is a grid structure similar to that used over the NAT. We then analyzed lateral deviations reported in the NAT from 2017 through June of 2019. We only found eight deviations that had evidence related to waypoint display labels: three deviations greater than 10 NM and five deviations under 10 NM where Air Traffic Control intervened to prevent a larger deviation. Guidance documents for NAT operations already explain effective flightcrew strategies for preventing lateral deviations. We have no further flight deck procedure recommendations. We do, however, explore benefits and cautions related to other potential mitigations. We also discuss potential implications for Trajectory Based Operations (TBO) in the United States, since TBO may make use of half-degree waypoints.
-
Format:
-
Funding:
-
Collection(s):
-
Main Document Checksum:
-
Download URL:
-
File Type:
