United States. Federal Aviation Administration.

A commonly held view is that system and human vulnerabilities, whether they emerge at a common moment or over a situation, can form links in a chain of events resulting in an air traffic operational error (OE). However, this truism has not led to the development of better techniques for profiling this progression. If we generally accept that OEs evolve over time, then OEs have temporal characteristics. By better understanding these temporal characteristics,...

"This research has two main phases. Phase 1 investigated three major questions: 1) Do video weather training products significantly affect general aviation (GA) pilot weather knowledge and flight behavior in marginal meteorological conditions? 2) How are modern Web-based weather products used during GA preflight briefing? 3) Do local Oklahoma GA pilots differ appreciably from other pilots in either weather knowledge or weather-related flight behavior?...

The Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) is a theoretically based tool for investigating and analyzing human error associated with accidents and incidents. Previous research performed at both the University of Illinois and the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute has successfully shown that HFACS can be reliably used to analyze the underlying human causes of both commercial and general aviation (GA) accidents. These analyses have...

"The outcome of a field evaluation of AeroClave's thermal decontamination system is discussed. This exercise evaluated the system both as a stand-alone technology and as a means of delivering STERIS vaporized hydrogen peroxide (VHP(R)). The report is submitted in the context of a decontamination technology selection exercise and work conducted on the efficacy of thermal decontamination. The field evaluation, performed on a McDonnell Douglas DC-9 aircraft,...

The size of the U.S. civil aviator community has been of interest to researchers, policy makers, and special interest groups. A strict definition for membership in the U.S. pilot population was used that was based on Scientific Information System principles. This approach provides methods for scientists to describe, quantify, and predict changes in this population over the 23-year study period. The Bioinformatics Research Team at the Civil Aerospace...

"Today's aviation industry is a 24/7 operation that produces a variety of challenges for cabin crew members including extended duty periods, highly variable schedules, frequent time zone changes, and increased passenger loads. While these operational requirements may be necessary, they are far from ideal with respect to the human body's biological rhythms for managing sleep and alertness. In fact, acute sleep loss, sustained periods of wakefulness,...