Development of a bespoke human factors taxonomy for gliding accident analysis and its revelations about highly inexperienced UK glider pilots
Low-hours solo glider pilots have a high risk of accidents compared to more experienced pilots. Numerous taxonomies for causal accident analysis have been produced for powered aviation but none of these is suitable for gliding, so a new taxonomy was required. A human factors taxonomy
specifically for glider operations was developed and used to analyse all UK gliding accidents from 2002 to 2006 for their overall causes as well as factors specific to low hours pilots. Fifty-nine categories of pilot-related accident causation emerged, which were formed into progressively
larger categories until four overall human factors groups were arrived at: 'judgement'; 'handling'; 'strategy'; 'attention'. 'Handling' accounted for a significantly higher proportion of injuries than other categories. Inexperienced pilots had considerably more accidents in all categories
except 'strategy'. Approach control (path judgement, airbrake and speed handling) as well as landing flare misjudgement were chiefly responsible for the high accident rate in early solo glider pilots. Statement of Relevance: This paper uses extant accident data to produce a taxonomy of underlying
human factors causes to analyse gliding accidents and identify the specific causes associated with low hours pilots. From this specific, well-targeted remedial measures can be identified.
Keywords: accident; approach judgement; final approach; glider pilots; gliding; inexperienced; taxonomy
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Department of Systems Engineering and Human Factors, School of Engineering, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK
Publication date: 01 February 2010
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