How Can Procedures and Checklists Help Pilots in Abnormal Flight Situations?

Abstract

This paper introduces a flight simulator study to evaluate procedures and checklists for use in abnormal situations. These utilities are meant to support pilots in hazardous situations, but for extreme situations, they might be inappropriate. Sixty crews (A340, A320) were required to fly in an abnormal flight scenario with a technical defect (loss of one main hydraulic system), which leads to several subsequent events. The aircrews had to mitigate these situations in order to safely land. The decreasing remaining fuel intensified time pressure while overloaded procedures had to be performed. In this study, the provided procedures were tested in this simulated crisis scenario.