In many aircraft accidents relating to pilot error, flight crews held an inconsistent assumption of the actual state of the system when reacting to a failure or abnormal situation. This paper formally defines divergence between flight crew mental model and actual system state, describes a developed framework to understand the mechanisms behind divergence, and discusses results of analysis of divergence in eight auto-throttle mode confusion accidents and incidents. The framework revealed that divergence occurred in all auto-throttle cases. As divergence was analyzed, it became apparent that reconvergence was also prominent in the accidents and incidents, where seven of eight cases indicated that the crew's mental model and actual system state regained consistency at some point during the accident timeline. Success of recovery actions was dependent on the timing of reconvergence in relation to the criticality of the situation. Consistent with existing literature, the framework also revealed that breakdowns in situation awareness were apparent during the onset of divergence and as an inhibition of reconvergence. The analysis using the framework of divergence showed that for auto-throttle mode confusion accidents, mitigation efforts would be most effective if targeted toward promoting situation awareness of system state prior to the situation degrading beyond recoverability.
The automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast system serves a dual role for general aviation operators, allowing integration with modern surveillance systems and providing an uplink of traffic, weather, and airspace information to participating aircraft. To obtain automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast uplink services, aircraft must be equipped with a portable or installed "automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast-in" receiver and display. This study used an online survey to assess pilot perception and valuation of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast-in traffic and weather services, including flight information system-broadcast and traffic information system-broadcast. Of the 1407 pilot respondents to the survey, 56.3% indicated having used automatic dependent surveillancebroadcast-in traffic and weather services while operating an aircraft. Among pilots who reported using automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast-in traffic services regularly, 64.5% reported that it helped them visually acquire traffic and 42.2% felt that the automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast uplink had provided information that helped prevent a midair collision. A strong link was observed between pilot satisfaction with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast-in traffic information and concurrent equipage with "automatic dependent surveillancebroadcast out." Pilots also reported using automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast-in weather and airspace services to improve inflight decision making, such as evaluating options for rerouting, changing altitude, or diverting to alternate airports.
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