Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2005

City

Dayton

Abstract

Human factors trends in C-130, F-16, and A-10 mishaps were reviewed for relevance to cockpit/crew resource management (CRM) course content. The current Air Force Safety Center human factors taxonomy includes about 360 detailed human factors elements. About sixty of these taxonomy elements map directly into the six CRM core areas identified in Air Force Flying Operations publications (communication, risk management/decision making, situational awareness, task management, crew coordination/flight integrity, and mission preparation/ debriefing). This small fraction of human factors elements accounted for well over half of the causal and strongly contributing factors cited in each platform. The relative contributions of specific CRM core areas varied across applications. Tactical airlift mishap CRM factors were fairly uniformly distributed across all six traditional CRM areas. In F-16 and A-10 mishaps, task management and situational awareness were particularly frequent causal and major contributing factors. Planning, flight integrity, and communication were rarely cited. We describe the mishap data that are available from the Air Force Safety Center, our analytic approach, trends identified, and implications for CRM training. We anticipate that these analyses will contribute to better focused CRM training objectives and course content that will, in turn, enable CRM training to be a major contributor to the success of recent Department of Defense efforts to reduce preventable mishaps.

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