Human Factors and Performance in Aviation Safety

Dear Colleagues,

Civil aviation can be arbitrarily separated into three main categories, (i) airlines (air carriers), (ii) on-demand (e.g., air taxi, air tours, air medical) and (iii) general aviation (composed mainly of light aircraft flown for personal missions), based on specific operational regulations applicable to each. While air carrier transport is exceedingly safe, this is less apparent for on-demand and general aviation operations. Indeed the fatal accident rate for general aviation is 80-200-fold higher than that evident for air carriers [1]. That said, aviation accidents are rarely due to equipment failure [2]. Rather, multiple studies have documented that most aviation mishaps are a consequence of human performance deficits for personnel employed across the enterprise spectrum—pilots, air traffic control, maintenance technicians and the organizational/supervisory hierarchy. For example, poor pilot decision making (the continuation of a flight into adverse weather), situational pressures (financial or personal), the lack of cognitive engagement, complacency, ennui, elevated risk tolerance, excessive reliance on automation and a poor human–system interface [3–6] have all been cited as causal/contributory factors to aviation accidents over the last three decades. This Special Issue on human factors in aviation welcomes manuscripts addressing all aspects of human performance pertaining to safe aviation practices across the enterprise.

References

[1] A Review of General Aviation Safety (1984–2017). Aerosp Med Hum Perform 2017, 88, 657–664.

[2] Joseph T. Nall Report; General Aviation Accidents in 2021. 2024.

[3] Cross-country VFR crashes: pilot and contextual factors. Aviat Space Environ Med 2002, 73, 363–366.

[4] The Effectiveness of Airline Pilot Training for Abnormal Events. Human Factors 2013, 55, 475–485.

[5] Situational Pressures on Aviation Decision Making: Goal Seduction and Situation Aversion. Aviat Space Environ Med 2009, 80, 556–560.

[6] The Impact of Motivation on Continued VFR into IMC: Another Perspective to an On-Going Problem.  Collegiate Aviation Review International 2020, 38, 51–66.

Dr. Douglas D. Boyd
Dr. Elizabeth L. Blickensderfer
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• human factors
• human performance
• aviation safety
• cognition
• human–machine interface
• automation
• pilot training