Air Traffic Volume and Air Traffic Control Human Errors

Woo-Choon Moon, Kwang-Eui Yoo, Youn-Chul Choi
DOI: 10.4236/jtts.2011.13007                

Abstract

Navigable airspaces are becoming more crowded with increasing air traffic, and the number of accidents caused by human errors is increasing. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between air traffic volume and human error in air traffic control (ATC). First, the paper identifies categories and elements of ATC human error through a review of existing literature, and a study through interviews and surveys of ATC safety experts. And then the paper presents the results of an experiment conducted on 52 air traffic controllers sampled from the Korean ATC organization to find out if there is any relationship between traffic volume and air traffic controller human errors. An analysis of the experiment clearly showed that several types of ATC human error are influenced by traffic volume. We hope that the paper will make its contribution to aviation safety by providing a realistic basis for securing proper manpower and facility in accordance with the level of air traffic volume.

Keywords

ATC, Human Error, Air traffic volume, Workload

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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