Approximately 85 percent of incident reports include a mention of loss of situational awareness. Research from The Australian Transportation Safety Board (ATSB) indicates that human factors are a contributing cause in around 70 percent of all incidents and accidents. It is pertinent to most accidents or incidents, it is real, and its absence causes accidents. Situational awareness is not just a theoretical notion. Time horizon: Awareness of time with respect to when required procedures or events, such as time to initial approach turn, will occur.System awareness: Awareness of the aircraft systems.Spatial orientation: Awareness of geographical position and aircraft attitude.The latter includes such aspects as speed, altitude, heading, in armed/acquire/hold modes and the state of flight management system (FMS) data input and flight-planning functions. Mode awareness: Awareness of aircraft configuration and flight control system modes.Environmental awareness: Awareness of other aircraft, communications between air traffic control and other aircraft, weather and terrain.The main components of situational awareness are: As developed by Airbus and British Airways, AIRS contains various personal, informational, environmental and organizational influences that affect crew actions and, in turn, can be affected by how the crew performs.įigure 1: Elements of Situational Awareness

The Aircrew Incident Reporting Scheme (AIRS) model in Figure 1 illustrates the most common factors that determine a pilot’s situational awareness. The projection of their status in the near future.The perception of the elements in the environment within a volume of time and space,.This briefing note is intended to help the reader gain and maintain situational awareness, to prevent falling into the traps associated with its loss and to avoid the negative effects of its loss on flight safety.Ī widely accepted definition of individual situational awareness comes from Endsley (1988) : Situational awareness is It explains the complex process of maintaining situational awareness, focuses on how it is lost and proposes prevention and recovery strategies. This briefing note presents a definition of situational awareness.

Situational perception definition